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iPhone 5, maybe time for a new battery?

D

darkcoupon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2012
141
0
I got this iPhone in Dec. 2012, about 5 months later I was having trouble keeping the battery charged throughout a whole day. Lately it's been draining fast and then dying at about 34%. I've tried every software fix I could find including updating, restoring, and resetting all settings. Nothing has helped. This morning I was answering emails and just doing some normal browsing and I noticed this:

battery.png


66% after 40 minutes of usage and only an hour of standby? That can't be normal. At that rate my phone would die almost every hour. This was after I plugged it in, too. It was at 63% and 38 minutes of usage before plugging it in. Does anyone know of a software fix that maybe I missed, or should I just bite the bullet and get a new battery?
 
themumu

themumu

macrumors 6502a
Feb 13, 2011
727
644
Sunnyvale
Try draining the battery completely, it may help recalibrate it. Drain, turn on (do not plug in!), repeat until it completely does not respond. Then leave it for several hours (overnight), and then charge completely. Hope you get it back to working order!
 
D

darkcoupon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2012
141
0
themumu said:
Try draining the battery completely, it may help recalibrate it. Drain, turn on (do not plug in!), repeat until it completely does not respond. Then leave it for several hours (overnight), and then charge completely. Hope you get it back to working order!
Click to expand...

I tried that a few times, same usage issues. Ended up buying a battery replacement from Amazon for about $7. Took about 25 minutes to replace it last night, drained it to recalibrate and I'm currently sitting at 2+ hours of usage and 85% battery life. Much happier!
 
D

darkcoupon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2012
141
0
Applejuiced said:
Nice. I'm having the same type of problem with my i5 but not comfortable enough to open it myself and replace the battery.
Click to expand...

Honestly it's pretty easy and ifixit has a great guide, but if you're not comfortable doing ithat type of stuff maybe take it somewhere that will do it for you. Taking the old battery out can be a little nerve wracking because it's glued in and if you try to leverage the wrong part of the phone you can damage the motherboard or puncture the battery.
 
M

magilla

macrumors regular
Aug 3, 2013
223
0
darkcoupon said:
I got this iPhone in Dec. 2012, about 5 months later I was having trouble keeping the battery charged throughout a whole day. Lately it's been draining fast and then dying at about 34%. I've tried every software fix I could find including updating, restoring, and resetting all settings. Nothing has helped. This morning I was answering emails and just doing some normal browsing and I noticed this:

Image

66% after 40 minutes of usage and only an hour of standby? That can't be normal. At that rate my phone would die almost every hour. This was after I plugged it in, too. It was at 63% and 38 minutes of usage before plugging it in. Does anyone know of a software fix that maybe I missed, or should I just bite the bullet and get a new battery?
Click to expand...
Yikes! 2 years on a battery! I just got my 1st iFone and have heard all sorts of horror stories about shortened battery life from other users. Seems like, at least to me, normal battery life should be expected to be quite a bit past 2 years.

Did you by any chance take it in to an Apple Store to have them take a look at the battery's reported diagnostics? Did you purchase Apple Care for it when you first purchased it? It's a moot point now since you opened up the thing and replaced the battery yourself but it would've been interesting to see what the Apple Store geniuses had to say after taking a look at it.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,313
2,387
Oregon
themumu said:
Try draining the battery completely, it may help recalibrate it. Drain, turn on (do not plug in!), repeat until it completely does not respond. Then leave it for several hours (overnight), and then charge completely. Hope you get it back to working order!
Click to expand...

This can actually damage a lithium ion battery. You basically NEVER want to run them all the way down.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,459
T5BRICK said:
This can actually damage a lithium ion battery. You basically NEVER want to run them all the way down.
Click to expand...
The way the phones would run them down wouldn't damage it. It's certainly more taxing on the battery than not running it down, but not in any real noticeable way unless you perhaps do it essentially every single day.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,313
2,387
Oregon
C DM said:
The way the phones would run them down wouldn't damage it. It's certainly more taxing on the battery than not running it down, but not in any real noticeable way unless you perhaps do it essentially every single day.
Click to expand...

The part where it was suggested to keep attempting to turn the phone on to drain the battery further and then letting sit overnight in this almost fully discharged state is what concerns me. Lithium ion batteries don't really have a "memory" and what was described isn't how you calibrate them.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,459
T5BRICK said:
The part where it was suggested to keep attempting to turn the phone on to drain the battery further and then letting sit overnight in this almost fully discharged state is what concerns me. Lithium ion batteries don't really have a "memory" and what was described isn't how you calibrate them.
Click to expand...
That part doesn't even make sense really given that once the phone turns off because the battery is low you can't really turn it back on to drain it some more, it will only turn on if you actually charge it and it has enough of a charge to function for a bit (about 5%). So in a sense it doesn't really even apply realistically speaking (at least to iPhones).
 
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