iOS 10.1 Battery drain

"It is important to note that these unexpected shutdowns are not a safety issue, but we understand it can be an inconvenience and wanted to fix the issue as quickly as possible." from Apple

Looks like there might have been a battery issue in some cases such as my own daughters battery but there also was a software issue that was causing problems especially when batteries had some use on them. My daughters battery ultimately was destabilized by the software update.

It seems like Apple has been able to reduce but not eliminate the issue with the 10.2.1 update. It is nice to see that they are building in other things like better diagnostic information and notifications for users telling them of the need for having the battery serviced. Perhaps in the future, Apple will be able to catch such software induced problems in real time now that they have diagnostic data coming in. They will be able to detect problems where software is causing things to run the wrong way leading to shutdowns. There will ultimately be fewer issues. Things just get better over time.

It seems that a new battery would fix the problem because new batteries were not as likely to be effected, however the root of the problem for most was software based hitting both well used and slightly used batteries leading to battery instability and shutdowns.

This information and the update should help many users who have experienced the shutdown issue that users here have been experiencing. Still Apple has found the update only has reduced the problem. 70-80% will still experience the shutdowns even with the update. So not entirely fixed yet, but they are working on it.

Also of note:

Those 6S phones involved in the recall actually had a purely battery related issue that produced similar problems for users but was not based on the software update. For those users they had defective batteries which was the reason for the recall.

Interesting article on the shutdown issue.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/23/apple-says-ios-10-2-1-has-reduced-unexpected-i phone-6s-shutdown-issues-by-80/

From the article:

"As far as I’m able to understand what happened here, Apple found that sudden spikes of activity to the maximum power draw could cause older batteries, which had some mileage on them, to deliver power in an uneven manner, which would cause an emergency shutdown of the devices. Brand new batteries would not be affected, but as most phone batteries run through charge cycles they get less effective (this is a well-known byproduct of lithium-ion technology and one reason everyone wants to get rid of it as soon as someone figures out something better) and more susceptible to these kinds of triggering spikes."

It will be nice to move beyond Lithium ion technology.

Greetings Paikinator

The answers provided are what we believed since the beginning, that is good validation. But there is still an issue with the solution, as I disagree with it. Here are my numbers after testing on my 6S, and checking on two others:

- Instead of 36-48 hrs v light usage or home standby, am getting 10-20;

- Health mysteriously stabilized at 90.x %. No more variation, since 10.2.1, in a month. technically, it is not possible to have no degradation for a month;

- My amperage discharge is the same. Be it not available in apps, other external tools pick it up;

- No heating, or any sort of rapid discharge symptoms;

- The phone now charges twice as fast;

- Have to plug it in 2-3 times a day, versus 1.5 days. Am only at 144.

- the 8 hrs talk / 12 hrs wifi are 160 min talk, 6 hrs wifi...

My conclusion is that all my update introduce an artificial meter not giving me the gas gauge figures but iOS figures; I also lost access to 770-800 mAh out of 1715, or, the sub 45% zone, which the iOS now zeroes as the software 0%.

Consequently, easy to eliminate 80% of shutdowns if the iPhone no longer goes below 35-45% range. But is that a fix? If a car has a fuel gauge read issue, is the problem fixed by preventing your car from using more than 25 out of 50 litres and calling it the new 0?

As I never had the shutdown issue, my software penalty is loosing access to a significant chunk of battery, halving my mobility and increases charging dependency.

of course some folks and shutdowns above 45% (50, 60 even 80%), and why the software fix would never work for them. Their new shutdown would be at 10 20 or 40% now.

Called and provided Sr apple top tier support concern and feedback on this fix, which appears to give full cycle by blocking full-battery access. Safer, for sure, but not fun.

regards

i have the same problem , before and upgrading to ios 10.2.1 also its happen with my newly buy iphone 7, even i didn't overcharged and always used my genuine charger, battery is sometimes quickly drain like e.g. when i was at bed time browse some internet just for 15 minutes its was 98% after i wake up morning i saw battery was at 12% , what is this **** its only happen with iphone mobiles, i didn't see this battery issues in samsung, or sony brand, and some of my friends also having same problem, suppose if you are travelling and battery give you these results , what you will do , will you die in pool by jumping. really i want to through this iphone in garbage drum. plz bycot to buy such expensive iphone mobiles with having thousands of problems everytime.

Yes, sorry to hear you are eating crow right now, personally I do not gloat. As you have not read or learned anything, here is a key disclosure by Matthew "Apple found that sudden spikes of activity to the maximum power draw could cause older batteries, which had some mileage on them, to deliver power in an uneven manner, which would cause an emergency shutdown of the devices. Brand new batteries would not be affected, but as most phone batteries run through charge cycles they get less effective (this is a well-known byproduct of lithium-ion technology and one reason everyone wants to get rid of it as soon as someone figures out something better) and more susceptible to these kinds of triggering spikes"

Translation for you, well, some batteries could not handle it. And why nearly thirty people here replaced batteries successfully. It is all what people repeated, here or working with Apple providing various degree of feedback and ideas. Such as the battery health-o-meter notification.

What you misunderstood is the software solution; Pending people cycling out or replacing batteries, for those affected the iOS will meter differently the battery, bypassing the faulty depth of discharge sub 30sh percent. An elegant, safe solution, be it those users may perceive a shorter battery life as they may now operate say 70% of their previous battery capacity. But will do so safely. The new zero may not necessarily be the HDQ gas gauge, but the threshold above shutdown. Since some very very few users experienced shutdown in the 50-80 range, their iOS 100-0 figure would still have them shutdown prior to reaching 0, instead of 50 could be 25% so on.

For those replacing batteries, the diagnostics will re-meter the gas gauge, and without faults, users will gain again much more usability.

For the future Li Ion solutions, it means that batteries should be operated with a safe reserve of 30%, which will be the new zero. To ensure people get tons of life, special power management tools will be needed (as in a dedicated better processor, more powerful than the puny HDQ gauge). So someone having an iPhone with 2400 mAh lasting three days of use, the real figure would be 3200, but 800 would be hidden as the safety 30% threshold below which the battery will never go again. A very smart solution, I hope Apple implements it soon.

Oh brother. Just more gobbly gook. Look I don't want to be mean or hurt your feelings. But everyone knows how wrong you were. You defended the OS and I guess still will to the bitter end. Turns out this is an OS problem. Even Apple has admitted it. Why can't you? I guess when you put that much effort into denying the facts it's hard to admit how wrong you were. Hopefully for everyone else Apple will work through this before the 8 is released. Otherwise I see many that will abandon the product and give the competition a try.

You never did hurt feelings, you do not have the ability. All you do is make me laugh. Because you do not understand anything and just try to stir stuff up.

Apple never admitted to a code error. Where did it do so? Stop making stuff up. Beside, there are code developers out there, in touch with Apple, working with Apple, whom know every single line of code by heart and no, there never was a bug. Apple offered a software mitigation for a hardware limitation associated with a very small fraction of batteries.

This is why some people still get shutdowns. Hint- there never was a but, you do not understand nor get it. But if you take, say, 30 percent of your 3d party battery and call it the new 100-0 you will never achieve shutdown threshold, nor will you ever get 2-3 days of light use as I do now that I replaced my battery.

People now come here telling us that Apple is offering them battery replacement solution- the issue is understood, resolved, moved on, except you, whom inserted a 3d party battery inside your iphone. When the new iOS metering will take 20% of its capacity, call it the new 100-0, and give you 1 hour of time, you might still return here and blame Apple. You returned again to blame the iOS for reducing your 3d party battery battery capacity, in truth, you should have blamed yourself.

While you were here coming to cause dissent, some where out there providing Apple technical feedback on the issue and resolutions, or helping people understand the technical origins of the problem. And, before you read too many articles, keep in mind that even some journalists did not understand the issue (or what a battery is), some from Apple, some coming from people correcting them. You can read Ulanoff and more, and they tell you receiving help.

Malanthius wrote:

Oh brother. Just more gobbly gook. Look I don't want to be mean or hurt your feelings. But everyone knows how wrong you were. \

Just because you didn't understand it doesn't mean what Belisarius said was wrong.

I think everyone can agree on a several things.

Lithium Ion technology has been great for what we all have needed up to this point, but better things are on horizon.

Lithium Ion technology has weaknesses that always lead to unanticipated problems for some users and some of these problems are well known and thus there is data available about duration and functioning of said Lithium ion Batteries.

However, there can be unanticipated consequences now and again. One such unanticipated problem was with Apples recent iOS 10 update. For some users who ran the update, their batteries went woefully amiss after the update.

Apple has since tried to diminish the issue by adjustments to their software. They have improved data collection to better monitor the phones so they can catch problems much more quickly and they have built in diagnostic capabilities allowing for them to interact with users in a more timely fashion.

It seems that the issue is both software related and battery technology related. There has been an intermingling of related problems leading to the perfect storm of shocking failures for some users.

This means 2 things really.

1. Quality control at Apple in their software is like everyone else...now and again the unexpected crops up. And they have been responsive and have come up with a solution and will continue to work on it.

2. Battery technology seriously needs to move on. And realizing this Apple has started their own Battery Division.

Who wins.... we do ultimately.

So yes a software issue and yes a battery issue.

Not sure there really is a need for quibbling at this point.

paikinator wrote:

So yes a software issue and yes a battery issue.

Not sure there really is a need for quibbling at this point.

Not entirely sure why you're telling me this. I wasn't quibbling about anything.

Best of luck.

Let's not forget that the most important software is located on the High Data Que bus, or HDQ gas gauge, located on the battery's comptroller. If that meter has any issues, including factory firmware issues, there is little the iOS can do, it only acts as a final delivery platform. The reporting is done via a string of values (0/1 and Yes/No). Now, credits to Apple for trying to mitigate with iOS some issues that are not easily fixable unless replacing the battery.

Since the iPhone 7 and SE had a different, supposedly better controller (and onboard software), none of them ever popped with these issues...

Spent a number of hours providing Apple technical feedback on this issue. In the end, they did isolate the cause, lots of engineers and developers converged with support. The answer will come in next iterations (phone versions), i expect significant changes in that area.

So I had my 6s under the battery recall. Battery replaced in December working fine until iOS 10.2.1. Then wierd battery drain phone shutting off at 30% or 40%. Switches off in a apple logo loop. Restart phone at 10%. Wierd behavior while charging too jumped percentage super fast like to 70% in 10 min from full discharge. Tried various restore reset reformat dfu. Finally took it in to the store. Apple diagnostics showed the battery to be bad (replaced under recall in dec) . They were suprised but offered to replace the battery. So far so good.

Botttom line if nothing seems to be helping get it checked at an Apple Store.

Going to have a hard time convincing all the people who had ZERO battery problems until immediately after "upgrading" the OS that the OS didn't cause the problem. That's illogical. I mean it's a great excuse to defend Apple and the OS. But doesn't make any sense. Not directing the comment to you. Just a general statement.

It is not as simple a correlation as that. You can read on similar stories going back several iOSes, and not necessarily with a major release. Some people had issues with 9.3, others, 10.2 others iOS 7. Not as much the iOS as the installation itself- it is a major stresser for the battery for several reasons:

- It is charging, usually, plugged

- It is reinstalling an iOS (so max CPU drain = high amperage drain)

- It is remetering certain parameters

- It is often indexing after the installation (again, more amperage drain)

- Clearly, different controllers handle this differently as no one here came with an SE or iPhone 7 phone., yet same iOS.

- I had installations give me 20 hrs battery life, and some other DFU firmware reset bump me to 48 hrs.

Cannot explain the reasons behind each weird jump, but can assure you that the most and only unstable component in our iPhones is the battery pack. It is a gel with a life of its own. And let us not forget that most those that came here had batteries with over 500 cycles. The few recall stories were only two or three people. If I include myself with an erratic 4 months old battery, we are barely four out of several dozens.

This problem is NOT limited to ios firmware 10+. I'm still using ios 9.0.2 and I'm having the 30% bug in a big way. (Maybe 20% is closer, however.) This began happening to me in October 2016, after no change whatsoever to my ios version or use habits. Unlike others, I haven't noticed any particularly odd battery level jumps, but the basic situation is the same.

At anywhere between 18% and 30% my phone will suddenly shutdown. Although usually this happens when I'm using the phone to do something processor-demanding (i.e. watching a video), I've also seen it happen while looking at the lock screen.

In my attempts to improve battery life (by cycling the battery to 0%, recharging, and hard resetting --which is a pain in the ascot), I've noticed something. Once the phone dies (at 20%-ish) and I charge it just enough to restart, sometimes after two or three short charge-unplug-drain cycles the phone WILL stay on. As if it decides "ok, ok, I'll stay on this time and let the battery drain normally." Once that happens I can use the phone pretty much normally. Often the battery indicator will move all the way down to 1%, and often lingers at 1% for a LONG time, 30 minutes or more even, before finally shutting down, allowing me to do a real, full, charge from 0% to 100% (and then the hard-reset).

As a devoted iPhone user (I still own a 3G, 3GS, 4S, 5, and my current 6), I can make a couple statements I believe to be completely true:

1) The old phones had dependable battery percentages, and NEVER turned off before 2% or so. (Yes, I recently charged up my old 3GS with ios 5, and almost ten years later it still drains normally and died at 1%.)

2) Apple has changed the way it recognizes "minimum acceptable battery". Supposedly this is to protect your phone, but really it's to push you into an iStore/iSore so they can up-sell you.

3) Apple is degrading the dependability of their "older" phones, the 6 and 6+, probably by design. Think about it; I'm running ios 9 and I have this problem. So it is really related to ios 10? I think it's much more about the fact that I haven't paid apple $700+ for their latest and greatest product. (It's no mystery that iPhone 7s don't have this problem. Yet. But this fall, when the 8 comes out, we'll see.)

I hope this is helpful to someone. I never thought I'd say this, but bless the Chinese government for telling it like it is!

-MH

1% battery wear in only 5 wheek and 16 cycle count...

iOS10 definitely prematurely worn out the battery.

Since Apple change the battery 5 week ago, I only charge when phone reach 1% battery left and couple of time 0% to phone extinction.

I dont understand 16 cycle as I take note of all my charge and I charge 13 time.

Still on iOS 10.0.2, I would like to go back to iOS9!

My iPhone 5 than I give to my brother 26 month ago that is still on iOS9, have almost 800 cycle count and only 11% battery wear.