iPhone 6 battery acting strange

markr6

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Ever since I had my iPhone 6 out on a few cold hikes (~0°F), it started acting funny. Even though it was in my pocket, I think it was still well below 20°. Say it's currently at 65%, and it gets cool...let's say 40°F for only 10 minutes. Sometimes it will then jump down to something like 30%. Obviously it didn't discharge 35% in minutes. But it continues to discharge at a normal rate from that point on...34....33...etc. But the second I plug it in to recharge, it will start reporting the 65% again (or, 64, 63, whatever). It will hold at this even though I only plugged it in for one second then unplugged it. So I'm back to 65%.

I don't think it's normal wear since I'm easy on my batteries regarding charging habits. It's about 18mo old. And I had an older iPhone and others which lasted years and years.

So did I just subject it to too much cold?
 

StarHalo

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I know the battery on mine is worn, the meter will do a big drop like that depending on which apps are open; opening Waze or Spotify will usually do it, and then when you plug the phone in the meter will reset to where it was before. Not a big issue except you have to be careful when the battery is low - I've had the phone die completely with the meter reporting as high as 23%, anything below 20% is "could shut off at any moment" territory with apps open or especially if you start opening apps. With no apps open or use conditions remaining unchanged for a long time, it's much more accurate and will discharge evenly down below even 5%.
 

markr6

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Thanks. That sucks :( When I go backpacking I'll run it dry...or at least down to 20% then recharge with a pack. But now not really knowing what's what, leaves me worried. I guess I can have the battery replaced if I plan on keeping this. I think someone locally does it for $40, or I can buy the kit/battery for around $20 on Amazon.

I can upgrade later this year, so I guess I'll see what comes out next.
 

NoNotAgain

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Purchase one of the Bettle Power holster case. The battery inside is I think somewhere around 4000mah.

The negative is that the charger cord isn't the Lightning plug but a micro USB plug.

I've found that if I allow the phone's battery to run down to 60% then hit the power button on the case, I can get more than 12 hours of constant internet and app usage before it requires a full charge.
 

markr6

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I've found that if I allow the phone's battery to run down to 60% then hit the power button on the case, I can get more than 12 hours of constant internet and app usage before it requires a full charge.

I guess it may come to that. I carry a 5200mAh pack with me, sometimes a smaller 3200 if just a quick trip. I would prefer the battery to report correctly as it had the past 18 months, though.
 

Gauss163

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Internal resistance increases greatly at lower temperatures, esp. at lower SOC (state of charge), e.g. see the first graph below. Higher resistance R causes a larger voltage sag under load, i.e. I*R is higher since R is higher. The results in less capacity, since the termination voltage will be reached sooner (see the 2nd graph). For example, the graph below shows that, at 80% DOD = 20% capacity(SOC), the internal resistance at 0°C is 1Ω (red curve), more than 5 times greater than its value 0.18Ω at 30°C (purple curve).
6PkU4.jpg


However, this is alleviated a bit by a self-heating effect that kicks in after a short time under load. For example, examining the graph below, we see that at -10°C the initial voltage dips down to 3.2V before rising from self-heating. This dip might descend low enough to trigger undervoltage protection on some devices. If this happens, then the battery capacity would be under 100mAh, vs. over 1000mAh capacity obtainable after battery self-heating kicks in. Often you can shrink these dips by adding a little heat (e.g. body heat) to jump-start the self-heating process.

1gvzOwK.jpg


Note: the above graph is excerpted from p. 14 of the book: Y. Barsukov and J. Qian, "Battery Power Management for Portable Devices, 2013. The authors are leading experts at Texas Instruments, responsible for the design of TI's impedance tracking fuel guage algorithm - used in most laptop batteries. It contains a wealth of useful information. Highly recommended reading.

See also related threads on Li-ion powered on hand warmers and foot warmers.
 
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NoNotAgain

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I guess it may come to that. I carry a 5200mAh pack with me, sometimes a smaller 3200 if just a quick trip. I would prefer the battery to report correctly as it had the past 18 months, though.

When was the last time you ran the battery all the way down?
The battery gauge doesn't reset well if you constantly charge above 50%.

The Beetle case added about 10mm to the thickness. They've got speaker channel boxes on the bottom that reflect volume pretty well.

I would have preferred using the Lightning connector and got a 8000 mah battery, but those sellers aren't Mfi certified.

Try running the battery down to reset the battery gauge.
 

Gauss163

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When was the last time you ran the battery all the way down?
The battery gauge doesn't reset well if you constantly charge above 50%.

This should not be an issue in modern devices since they have fuel gauges that don't require full discharges to recalibrate (except possibly very cheap devices).
 

markr6

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This should not be an issue in modern devices since they have fuel gauges that don't require full discharges to recalibrate (except possibly very cheap devices).

That's what I thought to be true. I did recently download a battery app, and it suggested to run it down under 5% once every month. I'm not saying they're right, though. Could just be old-school thinking from the person designing the app. I did run it to 0% twice over the past 2 months and still have this problem when the phone gets cold.
 

Connor

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I did recently download a battery app, and it suggested to run it down under 5% once every month. I'm not saying they're right, though.

They're not right. Any deep discharge stresses LiIon/LiPoly batteries more than several shallow discharges and should be avoided if possible.
Cold does weird things to LiIon/LiPoly cells (temporarily). I would suggest charging your phone fully - check if you get normal stand-by times, or maybe run an endurance benchmark and compare your scores to what's posted on the net.
 

Connor

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This is the procedure that the Apple gurus recommend to reset the gauge.
http://www.appledystopia.com/how-to/calibrate-iphone-battery/

Also a collection of non-scientific mumblings ("Periodically draining and recharging the battery keeps the flow of ions moving in the battery. " - doh). :duck:
LiPoly doesn't need to be calibrated, nor do battery gauges. Your phone is aware of the voltage of its cell(s) by at least 0.01V accuracy at all times. It also measures current draw and cell temperature and all combined gives you enough data to calculate the % you're at.
 
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Gauss163

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This is the procedure that the Apple gurus recommend to reset the gauge.
http://www.appledystopia.com/how-to/calibrate-iphone-battery/

The information there is not accurate. Beware of sell-proclaimed "gurus". The web is full of 'em.

Again, modern Li-ion battery fuel gauges don't require a full discharge to recalibrate like some of the older/dumber gauges did. if Apple was using such older/dumber fuel gauges then surely they would mention the need for such recalibration in their battery tips, but they don't.
 
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Str8stroke

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I thought I remember hearing there was a problem with one of the updates on the 6 causing apps to drain the battery at a unusually high rate. Have the phone updated recently?
Just double check you are running the current version. 9.3.1
I had some battery issues too. I was at the point of getting rid of the phone. However, here is what I learned and did. All of these steps helped me out big time. I am assuming you have no temperature damage to the device. I doubt the battery was damaged by cold. Heat, yes!
Is the phone getting warmer than usual?
You may have already tried some of this, but it could be useful info for others too.
Try a forced restart.
Per Apple: "Tap and hold the Home button and the On/Off buttons for approximately 15-20 seconds, until the Apple logo reappears. When the logo appears, release both buttons."
Then check your settings.
background apps running & refreshing, push notifications, what apps allow location tracking. Kill those you don't use or don't use daily.
Kill Automatic updates
You can also download a App called iRefresh Pro or Smart Memory Pro. Use this to clean up the cache and free up RAM. As a bonus you will notice the phone is just a little faster. Especially if it is over a year old.
Screen settings, reduce brightness max.
Bluetooth off???
Also goto; Settings-General-Accessiblity-Reduce motion. Turn that on. It slows down the visual effects (like the shaking icons) This will help reduce power usage.
Goto Battery and see what apps are draining on the device the most. For me it is Safari and Mail. From there you may see some apps that are killing your phone. I had a news app for a while that was zapping my phone quickly. I deleted that and it solved a lot my issues. Then you can also try out Low Power Mode if you want.

Best of luck!

All these little things should add up to a noticeable difference.
 

StarHalo

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I do own two battery cases for my iPhone, one older Incipio and a newer Anker; both are very handy, and give you more than twice the battery life. I just thought I would have replaced the phone by now - the iPhone 6 [and later] has a trick where you can charge the battery at 2.4 amps instead of the normal 1 amp rate, you just have to use some other high-amp charger than the one that came with the phone. We've owned a number of iPads over the years, which use 2.4 amp chargers, so I have plenty of those laying around, and I've always charged my phone that way. So the good news is that I've always charged my phone at top speed, the bad news is that the battery has worn at that top speed rate after these many months..

$40 for a replacement sounds reasonable actually, I may have to look into it soon.
 

CelticCross74

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I had a protective case/power source for my iPhone 6 I think it was called a Mophie? Had what I was told was a NiMH AA in the bottom that would charge the phone battery at the flip of a switch. Worked for about 2 and a half months and died. Be nice if I knew of a better protective case with a better back up power source in it...I did at least buy the upgrade wall wart for the phone its black and has a led square on it that lights up when charging. Man that upgrade wal wart charges my for more than twice as fast as the standard wal wart. I also plug my VC4 into it and damn..with all 4 bays loaded with depleted cells each bay is pegged at .5 amp through the whole cycle. Use the outer 1 amp bays? No sweat for the super wal wart Ive stuck two depleted 26650's in the outer slots and it stayed pegged at a full amp the entire cycle. The Xtar correct wart for the VC4 worked but more than one cell loaded into it and the charge rate would drop like a rock....
 

markr6

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Now I've had an iPhone 6S now for about 15 months. It's weird...I'm not experiencing this same problem as my 6S, but it's like the battery just drains 2x faster now. It happened all of a sudden last month. I always charge before it gets much below 40% and usually stop around 90%. Only down to 0% a few times. Nothing is running in the background, but it's totally hogging the battery.
 

StarHalo

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Now I've had an iPhone 6S now for about 15 months. It's weird...I'm not experiencing this same problem as my 6S, but it's like the battery just drains 2x faster now. It happened all of a sudden last month. I always charge before it gets much below 40% and usually stop around 90%. Only down to 0% a few times. Nothing is running in the background, but it's totally hogging the battery.

You lost capacity, it'll continue to deteriorate from there. Look into one of the aforementioned battery cases if you don't have access to a charger when needed.
 

ChrisGarrett

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Now I've had an iPhone 6S now for about 15 months. It's weird...I'm not experiencing this same problem as my 6S, but it's like the battery just drains 2x faster now. It happened all of a sudden last month. I always charge before it gets much below 40% and usually stop around 90%. Only down to 0% a few times. Nothing is running in the background, but it's totally hogging the battery.

My GF just traded her 6+ in for the 8 last night. The battery was definitely going a bit, but since the 10/8 releases, she suffered through spotty usage, as we've now come to expect from Apple.

We're going to try and get Apple to replace the battery on the 6 and then maybe I'll see if I can use it after wiping it clean. I'm on Verizon and she's with ATT, so I don't think I'll have much luck, unless I switch carriers.

Chris
 
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