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iPhone 6 battery suddenly draining fast

I've had my iPhone 6 since the end of October 2015. Everything has been great, until recently. Suddenly, my battery drains A LOT faster than usual. I never let the percentage get below 50%, and I don't have many apps, the brightness is always halfway, and it's on DND overnight. I have AppleCare, but would they replace the battery or would I have to buy a new phone through applecare? Thanks.

Posted on Mar 1, 2016 8:27 AM

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Posted on Jan 18, 2017 3:14 PM

my phone is doing this too!

My battery dies less than an hour after full charge to 100% and takes giant leaps forward toward death. For example, battery charged fully overnight, battery meter at 100%, I send a text message, 10 minutes later 80%, make a 5 minute phone call, down to 50%, then scroll the internet for 5 seconds and the "battery power less than 20%, low power mode" option pops up, then i hit ok to choose low power mode and it goes to 1% before my eyes instantly. I plug it in and immediately back to maybe 50%! i'm gonna post this separately to see if maybe there are new responses.

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Jan 18, 2017 3:14 PM in response to dylanS98

my phone is doing this too!

My battery dies less than an hour after full charge to 100% and takes giant leaps forward toward death. For example, battery charged fully overnight, battery meter at 100%, I send a text message, 10 minutes later 80%, make a 5 minute phone call, down to 50%, then scroll the internet for 5 seconds and the "battery power less than 20%, low power mode" option pops up, then i hit ok to choose low power mode and it goes to 1% before my eyes instantly. I plug it in and immediately back to maybe 50%! i'm gonna post this separately to see if maybe there are new responses.

Jan 20, 2017 4:19 AM in response to dylanS98

just downloaded this app that somehow ended up on the app store, it checks the status of your battery you guys should check it out and post results Battery Life: Your Battery Doctor by Nga Nguyen

https://appsto.re/us/L0tJfb.i

it shows the wear level of my battery is 75% and needs replacement, didn't really need an app to tell me that but was just checking cuz a lot of suggestions said it's a software issue, but it isn't, the battery is defected, with just 2 years of use and its dead, yes I expect it to deplete a little but not 75 %!!, if apple doesn't do something about that soon they are gonna lose a lot of customers, I buy iPhone's mainly cuz of their reliability, if that's gone then what for

Jan 4, 2017 6:56 PM in response to dylanS98

I had this same issue and noticed it began after the most recent update to IOS 10. What seems to have resolved the issue is going to maps and removing the parked location option as well as going to the battery to see what is using the most battery time on my phone. Facebook and Reddit were relatively high and I realized they were refreshing in the background. I unselected the option for those apps to refresh in the background. So far it's been a week and the battery life is much improved. Worth a shot! I also haven't noticed much difference in their time to load when I'm using the apps either so it doesn't seem like you lose much by not having them refresh in the background.

Jul 27, 2017 6:38 AM in response to carelle824

This sums it all up in my opinion Carelle824 . I'm having the exact same issue. The battery is all over the place on my 6. I'd like to hold out to purchase the 8, but heck I don't even know when that's coming out for sure. And, I also need a usable phone between now and then and mine is now powering off on its own on top of draining the battery in no time. I'm headed to the genius bar tonight, but I suspect that will be a joke. However, when I click on battery under settings it does say right there..."Your iPhone battery may need to be serviced" and I think the word may is cute, because it's soooo obvious it needs something.

Feb 3, 2017 9:20 PM in response to dylanS98

My iPhone 6 is having the same issue. Started when I updated to 10.2. At first it would jump between different percentages so I never knew what it was really at until I plugged it in. It could die at 90% or at 10% I never really knew. I also noticed this happening more often when I used the camera. My phone would die instantly when I would try to take a picture.

After a few weeks of that it then started to die faster. The percentage was always accurate at this point, but I could be at 100% one minute and 15 minutes later I'd be at 40%. That's with no apps running in the background and just having the phone sit there with the screen off playing music.

Yesterday it started draining even faster. It was draining 1% about every minute, I timed it. Now today it's even faster than that.

My phone is impossible to use unless it's being charged. I've tried everything that has been suggested besides getting a new battery. I'm not contacting Apple as every time I've had an issue with a product in the past they would just tell me there's nothing they can do and to buy a new phone/computer. Because apparently everyone has thousands of dollars to throw out every few months when their device starts acting up.

I'm really considering going over to an Android. This to me is just ridiculous. My phone isn't even two years old. I purchased it spring of 2015. It's February 2017, there's no reason for this to be happening. Completely unreal. I guess I shouldn't expect much more from a clearly money hungry company.

If anyone ever finds a solution to this please let me know. I really don't feel like throwing out $100 on a battery that can't even be guaranteed to fix the problem. If I have to spend that much I might as well just save up the extra cash and buy a Samsung.

Jan 16, 2017 5:15 AM in response to berfunk

I just received a certified refurbished iPhone 6s two days ago and experienced this battery issue this morning. Naturally my stomach dropped because I thought I had made a mistake in this purchase. I took berfunk's advice and it seems to have worked. My battery percentage said 25% and after resetting the settings it jumped back up to 85% where it was this morning. I anticipate this will only be a temporary fix until the new update comes out which will fix this issue...fingers crossed!

Apr 27, 2017 4:36 PM in response to dylanS98

Yep, sorry to hear of your troubles. I am having the same problem as well. One day a few weeks ago my phone unexpectedly died - thought I forgot to charge it. Charged it fully but found it was dead at the end of the day. Happened the third day and the fourth. I've just made 5 visits with my phone to two Apple stores in the past few weeks with no success.


First, they wiped out the phone and re-installed everything after running diagnostics and not finding anything. Didn't help, the phone continued to die in less than a day. This is with zero notifications, all background refresh off and low power mode - as I always have it set. I also do not have a single song or video on the phone and the only game is solitaire... I only make 1 or 2 calls a day and send less than 10 texts a day - if any at all.


Took it back to Apple, the tech said I need to replace the battery - even though the second diagnostic test showed no issues. Looks like I threw $90 out the window replacing a battery that wasn't the cause of the problem.

User uploaded file

Screen shot shows that I charged the battery to 100% at 10:24 PM that night. Unplugged it. In the morning I checked the phone at 5:58 AM and the phone with one-day-old battery had lost 50% of it's charge just sitting on the counter overnight.


Took it back to Apple. Showed them screen shot for reference. They ran tests, saw "nothing". They reset the phone. Again.


Same thing, the brand-new battery continued to drain in just a matter of hours even when all notifications and background refresh are off and, I would make, maybe one call or send one text. Went back to Apple, techs can't see anything wrong with my phone according to their diagnostics.


User uploaded file

Here you see, I fully charged the phone, at 6:50 PM. Didn't touch it all night. Picked it up at 6:18 AM and the brand new battery had only 10% TEN PERCENT of its charge remaining.


Went back to Apple store a-g-a-i-n. Showed them screenshots. Test run. Nothing. According to the five Apple technicians I saw, there is nothing wrong with my phone. They implied its that I don't know how to use my phone properly or understand appropriate settings. The only suggestion I was given was to buy a new phone if I don't like the fact that my phone's brand new battery dies after only hours of charging it.


During every visit I asked each tech, 'Is there some app or virus that is damaging iPhones? Have you gotten anyone else coming in with the same issue?' Repeatedly, I was told. No.


Something - Is - Definitely - WRONG - With - My - iPhone! And.... I AM NOT GETTING THE LEVEL I EXPECT FROM APPLE.


Having been a faithful Apple user for 20 years I am disgusted but the complete lack of care or attention. Apple was not able to diagnose the problem with my phone or make any repair so, they've dismissed me.


Apple products cost many more times the price that Androids and PCs cost. I was literally researching what new model Macbook Pro to replace my 4-year old one with when this all came up. Between to ridiculous new ports on laptops requiring me to replace every peripheral I have and being completely abandoned with my phone that only lasts a few hours, I am very seriously considering making the jump and switching to PC and Android (which I use at work so I'm completely vers in both platforms). I'll save a few thousand dollars at the very least.

Jan 7, 2017 9:23 AM in response to Yuehtsu

THis is now classed as a known issue & Apple are working on a solution in the next iOS update. It's has affected my iPhone 6 since iOS10, despite keeping my iOS, apps etc up to date & despite a reset, resetting to factory settings & as a last resort a complete restore. Apple support have checked my hardware & acknowledge it is an issue many users are experiencing. It's just a case of waiting for an update.

IF you want to feedback on this, go to Apple Support in your country & use the feedback option. Hopefully they'll get it sorted sooner rather than later!

Jan 23, 2017 12:10 AM in response to dylanS98

Same here.

Are there any officicial responses from Apple about that glitch? All came out with the new iOS. Had never any issues with my battery before.

I am using iOS beta and the last iOS update didn't solve this issue yet. So I hope with the new iOS update when available for public there is a slight chance we can have this solved. But again, the Beta version is showing that the issue is still there and there

Feb 27, 2017 4:44 PM in response to dylanS98

I took my phone to Apple Store, they did the check and suggested to restore the phone. I did the back up and restore...and didnt' fix the problem. Then I did a new install without any apps. I still have the same problem. I am not sure if I should replace the battery. It could be the software issue that confuse with the battery status. I am so not sure what to do...

Feb 27, 2017 4:53 PM in response to userfromWA

Someone said that replacing it will make it worse, but in my experience doing nothing will also make it worse. I have an appointment tomorrow to get a new battery because at this point I cannot use my phone for more than 30 seconds without it shutting down. The only way I can turn it back on is heating it with a hair dryer!! You can wait and see if your problem goes away if you'd like, maybe I'm just a really unlucky person.

iPhone 6 battery suddenly draining fast

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