iOS 10.1 Battery drain

Like so many thousands of other users, my iPhone 6 used to have the best battery life of any phone, but recently started to crash with more than enough battery available, and drain at an incredible rate.

This morning it went from 100% to 51% within 90 minutes with normal usage. Then crashed and came back with 10% battery!

I checked the serial number for replacement, and it's not on the list.

Time for Apple to listen.....

Hello, I have been a bit quiet lately so here is an update.

I have been destructively testing my warranty replacement battery which has now gone over the 90 day warranty Apple issue with such replacements. This has involved me using it every day and letting it shut down due to no charge. I have probably achieved this on over 90% of the days.

My discoveries so far:

1) No crashes at all even on low % battery, it simply gracefully powers off after 5 minutes or so on 1%

2) After about 60 days, I noticed a significant drop in the duration of my battery charge.

3) After 90 days a larger drop has occurred and because I play Pokemon Go! I now have to carry a battery pack around, I probably get about 4 hours usage before I have to charge it.

4) I have been to the Apple reseller here in Gibraltar three times and my battery has passed the diagnostics every time.

In conclusion:

1) Crashes in my case were due to a faulty battery, IOS 10 was the contributing factor which pushed it over the edge.

2) Batteries are poorly made and low quality, with heavy use I reckon they will not last 6 months. For a £500.00 - £750.00 phone this is just not acceptable.

Continued Testing:

I will continue taking my phone in to the Apple reseller and report back when this battery finally fails the Apple diagnostics.

Then we will have an accurate idea of how long a battery will last on a premium smartphone when used fully every day.

See you later Guys!

Greetings, good to see you Adrian! Curious, has your battery health dropped? I noticed some odd things on mine- it never move din 3 months, unless doing app reinstall and, for a brief moment, battery apps report a lower figure, 87%. After that, they return to 93.27%, same exact figure when upgrading to 10.3. I attribute this to the new 'artificial meter.'

I have had the same thing, since updating to iOS10 I would get the random battery drain, jumping to 1%, rebooting with the same % it should have hade etc.. since going to the latest update (around a month ago) my phone now just dies and won't even reboot until plugged into power, this usually happens after 5-10 mins usage .. before IOS 10 my phone was absolutely fine and I had 0 problems, as soon as updating to 10 this started happening, it's either software related or at least stemmed from that and having to charge it all the time due to the software issue has probably killed my battery now anyway.. disgusted with Apple and will probably move away from them when my contract comes up in July .. my phone is rendered useless

My iPhone 6 has the same battery issues as what people are complaining here. It started around Nov. 2016 timeframe, after one firmware update. I signed up the iOS beta program in hope of Apple fixing the random shutdown issue. Instead, with firmware releases during the past 6 months, I experienced every possible symptom that people are complaining. Now my phone is tethered to a battery pack, otherwise it will shutdown in a few minutes even after just fully charged. It will reboot and if I plug the phone in, it will show battery level at above 90%.

Apple's silence and denial of the issue is infuriating.

I just got to know that recent firmware could shows a message, "Your iPhone battery may need service". I chatted with Apple support and ran the diagnostics. I was told I would get free battery replacement, despite me saying it's an iPhone 6, and the support has my phone's serial number. I set up an appointmentat a nearby Apple store today.

But no luck. At the store, after sitting through the waiting game, I finally was able to talk to someone. I was asked to describe the symptoms again, and he ran the diagnostics again. I was told my battery was "consumed", and need to pay for the replacement.

I mentioned that the support I chatted with yesterday said I could get a free replacement. He basically ignored and reiterated that I would either pay for the battery replacement or trade in the phone.

I said a premium phone only last 2 years is unacceptable. He ignored and the warranty is one year.

I said other phones I used over the years would not do that. He ignored.

I said Apple claimed one of the firmware update resolved a certain percentage of people experiencing these issues. He knew what I was talking about. I asked, if one of those people walked into the store before that firmware update, and was advised to replace battery, he would be unfairly charged. The genius ignored and said my battery is "consumed" and have a good day.

I think I would not seek tech help from genius again. I had a terrible experience with them the first time around. I think they're bound by the company policy anyway, in regards to handling this battery issue.

Unfortunately, your battery likely had more than 500 cycles and your experience is still above industry average. I had issues at the 3 month mark. Another iPhone had a battery fail at 6 month. Android warrants its OS support for 2 years, and all hardware is 1 year. At some point, your battery expired between the 1st and second year, and it took until the last visit for it to become clear. If you had more than 500 cycles, given the computing power of your 6, that is still exceptional. Better than that, Macbooks pre 2015, 1000 cycles and most go that long without drop.

Although you do call the phone being premium, and price wise maybe at the time of purchase, and it applies to the screen, processor, GPU etc but not to the battery. There is no premium Li Ion technology or electrolytes (a single heat exposure can do it in) although J Goodenough (Li Ion best known inventor) just patented (94 yrs old!!!) a solid Li Ion solid tech with x3 charge per volume, and 20-30 min charge time. Hopefully we see that entering mainstream SOON.

Hi,

Has apple offered a solution yet?

My family and friends are all having the same problem at the moment, 16 iPhones ranging from 5 months old to 3.5 years old. Battery life drains to about 30% after using for 20 minutes checking emails or Facebook. It usually drops to 1% then reboots. The only thing we can pinpoint is that it has started since the ios10 upgrade for most of us.

Any ideas on what to do?

Thanks : )

Below 1 year, (or 1-2 with Apple Care) support varies but quite good. Each phone has to be taken in consideration individually. These days they are replacing batteries frequently.

1-2 years I would check the cycle count and Apple Support. 2+ years, and anything over 500 cycles, battery replacement is a must. 500 cycles is in ideal conditions. Heat, music, rapid drains, a single 'forgotten in car' overheat damage Li Ion batteries. I think only one users in many dozens had an issue after battery replacement, turns out faulty battery stock and replacement fixed it. Gf's iPhone, she was getting less than ideal life, was at 67% health, we had it replaced and it regained speed and a couple of more hours daytime usage. Still less than new, but thats because newer iOSes, with all functions on, are more demanding than older ones.

Caveat- any new iOS with full bells on a 5/5S or 6 will tax them more than a 6S or 7. Not all iOS 10 are equal, version 10.3 for 5 (32 bits) being a different architecture than 5S onwards (64 bits). Older hardware with all social media options will burn smaller batteries faster.

I have a 5s (3 ½ years old) which was running IOS 10.something. All of a sudden it blacked out at 41% and wouldn't respond to anything. Went to a Verizon store and I don't know what he did but he got it back. It said 41% when it came back on. He updated the software to 10.3.2 (I had been one iteration behind). It then happened again 2 more times in a week. I got it back by pressing enough keys. The battery had NOT died because it said 30% or so.

I called Apple and they did diagnostics on the battery and said it was good. They recommended that I wipe and restore the phone (I had backed it up on the cloud and on iTunes). I'm now waiting to see if that did the trick. I'm going on a trip and I really don't want to have my phone die on me because I rely on it so much!

Congratulations to Apple for not solving the problem yet. Are they so worried about forcing their customers to buy a new iphone that they do not realize that leaving their customers, at any time, without battery can be dangerous? I already have version 10.3.2 of ios and the error remains. The battery level looks good and out of nowhere the phone switches off. It's time to buy a new phone, and it will not be an iphone.

Had my iPhone replaced completely- as they did not want to just replace the battery. All issues gone, as is the short life. No relationship with the iOS, but how my hardware handled it. By mid June 2017, travelling, battery life had dropped to 80% health and had my first instant of Off and On percentile change. I turned it off at 50%, and when back On, 65%. Replaced it, issues gone. As a reminder, my issue started in iOS 9.

Forum died so people must have had resolution by now.

How did you resolve it? In the end hardware replacement fixed mine. I know one incident which may have triggered it, a hard floor corner drop in Sep 2016, while still running iOS 9. It fell right on the battery corner, which is also near the microphone, which also gave me recurring lapses after.

Ditto, I've had the exact same (unexplained) issues with my I-phone 5 battery for some time now, and so visited an Apple Service Centre (by prior appointment) out here. After a brief "analysis", the service centre staff advised me that my device battery "seemed to be bloated", and I'd need to get it "more fully" analysed. But for that to be carried out, I'd have to back up my device first. (I see absolutely no physical signs of any "bloating" of my I-phone battery, as I myself understand that term!).

Be that as it may, no further analysis nor any further useful and "appropriate" advice" was readily offered either, such as the methodical and sequential troubleshooting steps available here for trying out initially, before advancing on to a "more complete" battery analysis followed (in all probability) by a switch to a new battery! (I'm now trying these out on my own!)

I came way from this place with a feeling that all Apple (and its "approved" service centres) really care about (in the final analysis) is their bottom line(s), i.e. sell as much as possible, even tho' the "valued client" concerned ought / need not spend any further (hard earned) cash to resolve such-like "elementary" glitches and "soft" problems!!

So, like many of its "valued clients" out there, I too simply refuse to spend my cash on any further (and unnecessary) Apple products, unless I'm given an overwhelmingly convincing reason why I should!!

My iPhone 4 with it's original (over seven year) battery works great... Fast as ever! Same with my even older original iPod touch. Unsupported now, so I can't upgrade it to the latest iOS with slowdown feature.

Now, my iPhone 6 on the other hand...

I noticed you have an iPhone 5 which is not on the list for the battery replacement program... You can probably just purchase an external battery case for your phone like I did for my iPhone 6. That seemed to speed it up.

I just don't understand it, but even my old external battery packs and battery case, despite being old and degraded, still have the ability to power my iPhones without causing unexpected shutdowns or slowdowns.