What happened to my iPhone 5?

[stonyboys]

Was in my car, entered with 18% remaining when I started to play music. 5 minutes later it turned off by itself with the spinning ring like I ran out of battery. I tried restarting and it said I need to plug it in. When I got home I plugged it in and it showed that I had 17% left. Is something wrong with my phone? Why did this happen?

[ValerieDurden]

Sounds to me like your battery needed to be calibrated as the % was off, I've had it do the opposite where I showed 1% and got an hour usage out of it before it finally turned off, a full charge to 100% cured that issue.

[serkan]

Originally Posted by ValerieDurden

Sounds to me like your battery needed to be calibrated as the % was off, I've had it do the opposite where I showed 1% and got an hour usage out of it before it finally turned off, a full charge to 100% cured that issue.

Maybe it won't be related to post but can you please tell me how to calibrate the iphone battery ?

Thanx

[Bahroo]

Originally Posted by serkan

Maybe it won't be related to post but can you please tell me how to calibrate the iphone battery ?

Thanx

Charge your phone to 100%, then use it all day ( dont charge it during the day) drain the battery till your phone shuts off then charge up and you should be good

[matttye]

As far as i know there's no 100% fool proof way of determining how much power is left in a battery; it's all educated guesswork. Sometimes it's more out than others. Lots of people swear by calibration and others say it doesn't help at all.

I've calibrated other phones in the past and it seems to have helped.

[serkan]

Originally Posted by Bahroo

Charge your phone to 100%, then use it all day ( dont charge it during the day) drain the battery till your phone shuts off then charge up and you should be good

Thanx a lot. It is the same like doing it in macbook pro then The difference is you wait after full charge like 2 hours and drain it and wait like 5 hours and make it full again

[mKTank]

If you live in a cold place, and put the phone in the cup holder or in the passenger seat or something, the temperature is often enough to kill it because the battery loses 'influence' when the temps are that low. I live in Winterpeg and it's -25C outside most of the time in the winter. In the car, if I put my phone in the cup holder, if the battery is 40% or less, it sometimes dies or drops in charge if it sits in the cup holder for long, as it's not a particularly heated area. The phone having a metal frame and backside is to blame for this. If you warm it up again by holding it in two hands and using your hands' warmth, it should regain 'influence' (not the correct word but you get the point) from the battery. That's probably what's going on right now with your phone.

[Bahroo]

Originally Posted by serkan

Thanx a lot. It is the same like doing it in macbook pro then The difference is you wait after full charge like 2 hours and drain it and wait like 5 hours and make it full again

Yeah your calibration was defitnetly off, has had happened to me few times a while ago

[w00t951]

Originally Posted by mKTank

If you live in a cold place, and put the phone in the cup holder or in the passenger seat or something, the temperature is often enough to kill it because the battery loses 'influence' when the temps are that low. I live in Winterpeg and it's -25C outside most of the time in the winter. In the car, if I put my phone in the cup holder, if the battery is 40% or less, it sometimes dies or drops in charge if it sits in the cup holder for long, as it's not a particularly heated area. The phone having a metal frame and backside is to blame for this. If you warm it up again by holding it in two hands and using your hands' warmth, it should regain 'influence' (not the correct word but you get the point) from the battery. That's probably what's going on right now with your phone.

If your phone sits in an overly cold (check Apple's spec sheet) environment, you'll permanently damage the battery.

[mKTank]

Originally Posted by w00t951

If your phone sits in an overly cold (check Apple's spec sheet) environment, you'll permanently damage the battery.

Lol no. It'll temporarily lose charge. That's why they have separate operation and storage temps. It's just fine sitting in a -10C to 0C cupholder. It'll just lose charge but there's no such thing as permanently damaging the battery at those temperatures.

[fruitpunch.ben]

Originally Posted by mKTank

If you live in a cold place, and put the phone in the cup holder or in the passenger seat or something, the temperature is often enough to kill it because the battery loses 'influence' when the temps are that low. I live in Winterpeg and it's -25C outside most of the time in the winter. In the car, if I put my phone in the cup holder, if the battery is 40% or less, it sometimes dies or drops in charge if it sits in the cup holder for long, as it's not a particularly heated area. The phone having a metal frame and backside is to blame for this. If you warm it up again by holding it in two hands and using your hands' warmth, it should regain 'influence' (not the correct word but you get the point) from the battery. That's probably what's going on right now with your phone.

Yeah I had the same thing, took my phone skiing and had it in my pocket all day - was running a ski-logging app. Had it charged 100%, and it lasted about 8 hours and turned off. I thought it was strange because my brothers i5 still had 40% charge. Sure enough when I plugged it into my car charger a bit later, after I'd been inside and warmed up, it turned on and had 40% charge. Most likely the OP's phone got too cold.

[dictoresno]

i had this issue one time last week and actually posted about it. my battery was tanking all night, dropping 40-50% in like 4 hours and not even using it heavily. it eventually died at around 11%. when i plugged it it and restarted it, it was on 14%. there was something funky going on. once i recharged it overnight, the issue was gone. i chalked it up to a one time buggy issue.

[stonyboys]

Originally Posted by mKTank

If you live in a cold place, and put the phone in the cup holder or in the passenger seat or something, the temperature is often enough to kill it because the battery loses 'influence' when the temps are that low. I live in Winterpeg and it's -25C outside most of the time in the winter. In the car, if I put my phone in the cup holder, if the battery is 40% or less, it sometimes dies or drops in charge if it sits in the cup holder for long, as it's not a particularly heated area. The phone having a metal frame and backside is to blame for this. If you warm it up again by holding it in two hands and using your hands' warmth, it should regain 'influence' (not the correct word but you get the point) from the battery. That's probably what's going on right now with your phone.

This is the exact situation haha, it was COLD that day and I did have it in a cup holder while playing music.

Good to know it wasn't because something's wrong with the phone, thanks.

[motty2307]

I've had the same issue while listening to music at work. I'll try to switch songs and it doesn't do anything even though it says its playing. Eventually springboard restarts and it's fine. Never seemed to happen before iOS 6. I don't know if the original poster's problem is the same as mine, just thought I'd bring that possibility up.

[w00t951]

Originally Posted by mKTank

Lol no. It'll temporarily lose charge. That's why they have separate operation and storage temps. It's just fine sitting in a -10C to 0C cupholder. It'll just lose charge but there's no such thing as permanently damaging the battery at those temperatures.

This site scientifically disagrees with you.

Originally Posted by Battery University

Many battery users are unaware that consumer-grade lithium-ion batteries cannot be charged below 0°C (32°F). Although the pack appears to be charging normally, plating of metallic lithium can occur on the anode during a subfreezing charge. The plating is permanent and cannot be removed with cycling. Batteries with lithium plating are known to be more vulnerable to failure if exposed to vibration or other stressful conditions. Advanced chargers, such as those made by Cadex, prevent charging Li-ion below freezing.

[mKTank]

Except you missed the point. It says charging while under those temps is bad. Nobody here's charging their phone in those temperatures. Storing in those temps is just fine.

[stonyboys]

But using the phone or having it on standby in low temperatures isn't bad for it, is it? I guess I could keep it in my pocket whenever it's cold so it stays warm.

[mKTank]

Originally Posted by stonyboys

But using the phone or having it on standby in low temperatures isn't bad for it, is it? I guess I could keep it in my pocket whenever it's cold so it stays warm.

It's not *supported*, meaning it might just lose charge, that's about it. Nothing permanent. Just don't plug it in if it's a cold brick.

[Rocko1]

No such thing as calibrating a battery. These old 'methods' from ni-cad and older battery technology will not die. Your phone incorrectly calculated the batteries capacity. It's based on voltage and not 100% accurate. It's a software issue.