iPhone 6 battery acting strange

[Tejasandre]

Apple has admitted to turning back the battery performance on "older" iPhone models.

 

[StarHalo]

Apple has admitted to turning back the battery performance on "older" iPhone models.

iOS 10.2.1 and later steps down the processor if the battery is worn, to prevent exactly the problems I pointed out in post #2 of this thread. A soon-to-be-released update will give you the ability to turn this step down on/off, which would be nice so I could play games again on my older iPad Mini..

 

[Gauss163]

Apple has admitted to turning back the battery performance on "older" iPhone models.

Despite much media misinformation, this is necessary if you want to avoid random crashes on older batteries. The problem is that with older cells with very high IR, when some high load process starts the higher current and high IR may cause the battery voltage to sag so low that the phone will crash. One way to prevent that is to throttle the CPU and apps in order to avoid extremely high load voltage sags.

It is very tricky to design software to implement optimal throttling on devices like phones where there are highly variable loads. That's (partly) why many laptop manufacturers (e.g. Dell) nag you greatly to replace batteries when they drop below 80% of design capacity. The longer you use aged cells the higher the probability of random crashes - which are obviously not good for business (Amazon would be flooded with complaints about poor quality due to random crashes when really what's poor is only battery health).

 

[markr6]

I just wish I could go back to 90>70% during the work day instead of the current 90>40% that suddenly happened pretty much overnight. And that is on wifi with fairly light use.

I guess I can wait until October when I get my next discount from Verizon.

 

[nbp]

I'm curious about usage patterns when people have severely diminished battery capacity. I have used each of my iPhones for a couple years before replacing and while I'm sure capacity did decrease to some extent, it has never been to the point where it was seriously noticeable. I was always able to make it through the day on a charge. I'm not sure what kind of use causes the significant decrease in capacity in the span of a year or so. Even if you fully discharged/charged every day after a year it should still be at >80% capacity if Li-ion maker claims are correct.

Edit: The thing that kills my battery the most is poor cell service where it's struggling to find signal. It drains fast. If service is terrible I just turn off cell. It's pointless to leave it on.

 

[markr6]

I use mine when backpacking. Usually in plane mode but the GPS could be giving it a good beating. Plus the colder temps. Even though I sleep with it, it's getting cold during the day even in a pocket. I try to turn the battery facing my leg thinking it's staying a bit warmer. I rarely talk on it; just texting and facebook, web browsing stuff.

 

[marcosg]

Mark,

Check this link
https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power

Your Phone is eligible for a battery replacement. $29.00 at the Apple store near you or you can send it in.

Also, there's a know problem with the previous OS, that as you know affected numbers of older phones.

Last step is: Back up your phone to your computer or Icloud. Specially Photos and contacts.
Erase your phone completely.
Do not restore your phone from the back up.
Start your phone as new.
Login to your apple account but just restore your contacts only.
Install all the Apps you had before as New (App Store knows what you had before once you login).
Configure your mail app again manually.

These steps sounds like a pain but it isn't.

Again, Back up your photos, Contatcts and Emails (you probably have a copy of them on your main computer)

PS: Do all that with your phone connected to your main computer and use Itunes to backup and re-install the OS.
There are other steps to configure your phone so it can save more of the battery life.
I can help if you need with the steps.

 

[Gauss163]

I'm curious about usage patterns when people have severely diminished battery capacity [...]

Probably one major culprit is keeping it close to fully charged for much of its life, e.g. frequently topping it up or leaving it charging overnight (esp. when hot). Most consumers are not familiar with methods for minimizing Li-ion degradation (here minimizing the amount of time spent at extreme voltages and temperatures).

 

[marcosg]

One of the main problem was that the newest IOS was aimed for the Iphone X which has two batteries instead of one I guess.

 

[nbp]

I use mine when backpacking. Usually in plane mode but the GPS could be giving it a good beating. Plus the colder temps. Even though I sleep with it, it's getting cold during the day even in a pocket. I try to turn the battery facing my leg thinking it's staying a bit warmer. I rarely talk on it; just texting and facebook, web browsing stuff.

Could be navigating, I suppose. But even still that seems like pretty normal usage. That's more or less how I use my phone too.

When I think of extreme use I think of business people who are constantly on their phones, talking, video chat, running complex apps etc, and always plugging in their phones every chance they get to ensure a full charge. Or teens who are scrolling through thousands of FB, IG posts per day, streaming hours of music and video, plugging in all the time. That's gotta add up to a lot of charge/discharge cycles per year.

Probably one major culprit is keeping it close to fully charged for much of its life, e.g. frequently topping it up or leaving it charging overnight (esp. when hot). Most consumers are not familiar with methods for minimizing Li-ion degradation (here minimizing the amount of time spent at extreme voltages and temperatures).

This is a very good point. I'm somewhat picky about this thanks to li-ion training here on CPF. My phone rarely goes below maybe 40% and I usually plug it in during the evening so I can unplug when charged before going to bed rather than leave it in all night. By morning I usually still have 95-99% which is sufficient to get me through a normal workday. Good battery care might be on my side. Though it sounds like Mark above is similarly careful with his so who knows?

 

[markr6]

Yeah 9/10 days or more was the same for me: charge around 6pm or 7pm to 90-93%, fine when I wake up and still only down to about 50-60% 24 hours later after use. Now it's more like 60% mid-day and 30-40% 24 hours later.

It's not a problem to charge a little more often, knowing I'll replace it within a year anyway. It was simply the sudden change that caught my attention.

 

[Gauss163]

[...] This is a very good point. I'm somewhat picky about this thanks to li-ion training here on CPF. My phone rarely goes below maybe 40% and I usually plug it in during the evening so I can unplug when charged before going to bed rather than leave it in all night. By morning I usually still have 95-99% which is sufficient to get me through a normal workday. Good battery care might be on my side. Though it sounds like Mark above is similarly careful with his so who knows?

Actually using 40-100% SOC is worse than the common 0-100% because your average voltage is higher (70% SOC). Generally you should keep your usage region centered around 50% SOC, and keep it as small as practically possible (this minimizes the time the cell spends at extreme voltages). If it's noncentered then generally averaging below 50% is better than above.

 

[nbp]

Perhaps so, but I also don't want to start my day at 70% and consistently get home with 10% left. Any disruption in my routine may leave me a dead phone then. I'd rather have 30% in reserve for an emergency. There's only so much you can reasonably do. So I try to not deep discharge it and not to leave it at 100% for very long either. But I'm not going to unnecessarily inconvenience myself either. Battery replacement isn't so cost prohibitive if it is needed. So far it never has been.

 

[NoNotAgain]

If you go to the settings tab, then battery, if your battery is getting ready to take a dump, there's a message to indicate its replacement time.

My Dad's iPhone 6 had the battery swell up to the point that it popped the screen up a 1/4".

I've got all the tools from iFixit and it took all of 10 minutes to replace the battery and adhesive strips.

A friend had issues with his iPhone 6 and asked how difficult it was to replace. I volunteered to do the replacement and sent him to iFixit, but he's cheap and purchased a generic battery kit. Instead of pulling the adhesive strips, he pried the battery out which shorted and the phone burst into flames.

I use the Mophie H2Pro waterproof battery case. I'm a heavy user for video while awaiting medical appointments, so the phone battery was close to 25% after 6 hours. With the case, I still have 80% case battery and a fully charged phone.