Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[I7guy]

I just signed up to this forum to reply to your specific post.

I hope you like the taste of your shoe. I can record video of my wife's 2 year old 6 taking over 15 seconds to open the camera app....every day of the week.

You're just wrong on this, and you should stop being such a defender of Apple on this. EVERYONE has been telling you for years phones were doing this, and you didn't believe them

Your phone has an issue. My 7 year old iPhone 4 on iOS 7 doesn’t take 15 seconds to open the camera app. I have never had a phone including the iPhone 6 that takes more than a few blinks of the eye to open the camera app.

 

[FelixDerKater]

They just want you to “replace the battery” in your 6S with a new one in an iPhone X.

 

[C DM]

My issue with the situation mostly stems from the lack of prompt info made to the user of how the issue can be remedied.

That part is essentially what seems to be the main problematic part, along with proper remedies for it.

 

[blackdogaudio]

So your ok with your phone working at 50% its speed after a year?

Again, its the full phone that's designed badly. If after a year you can no longer use it at its original speed.

It's not OK. But, if technology doesn't support what we want - a phone that lasts *three years minimum with NO degradation in performance including battery life while weighing less than a brick - then we live with what we get.

* = my definition of reasonable

 

[PickUrPoison]

I have an iPhone 6 that was slowed down due to a degraded battery, it takes maybe 2-3 seconds to open the camera.

Anyone whose phone is taking 15 or 20 seconds to open the camera app has an issue far different than just a CPU running at 1/3 of maximum.

Otherwise, it would still take 5+ seconds when the phone was at max clock. But it doesn’t, it’s less than a second.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Take it to the Apple store. They'll tell you if it needs replacing. In this case, people's phones are being heavily throttled while being told their battery is healthy.

Apple can run battery health tests and determine remaining battery capacity compared to new. They generally recommend replacement if it's less than 70% original capacity. It's not their fault when people refuse to replace their battery, which is often the case.

 

[Tubamajuba]

It's not OK. But, if technology doesn't support what we want - a phone that lasts three years minimum with NO degradation in performance including battery life while weighing less than a brick - then we live with what we get.

Exactly. I agree with those saying that Apple should notify users of the reduced performance they may experience while being throttled, but quite a few people here don't seem to understand that their choices with a degraded battery are a phone that randomly shuts off or a phone that runs slower. Lithium ion batteries suck, issues like this remind us of that fact.

 

[Dangermen]

i have an iPad Air 2 that is over three years old. it runs fine. Maybe it is not all conspiracy? it would be nice to have a switch though to turn the battery throttle feature on or off.

 

[blackdogaudio]

Well it sure would be annoying to have the phone tell you it's throttling due to battery wear, only to go to the Apple store and have them tell you the battery is healthy and not eligible for a new one.

I agree with you. They should allow you to spend your money any way you see fit but a popup by their own analytic software on your phone would be hard for them to argue with. ;-)

Problem solved...

 

[adamski23]

That part is essentially what seems to be the main problematic part, along with proper remedies for it.

A simple visual cue like a diffrenent coloured battery indicator once the battery reaches a certain degraded state would be enough to prompt the user without being annoying.

 

[I7guy]

It isn't blown out of proportion. I know that's your opinion, but frankly you seem like you hold shares in Apple and care more about their financial well-being than the consumers they're affecting.

I don't want Apple crippling my phone's performance any more than they already have with irreversible iOS updates. People paid to upgrade phones that didn't need to be replaced. This whole thing is dirty.

If they want to make throttling a user-enabled feature, by all means.

I used to be a shareholder, but I’m of opinion “eat my own dog food”.

Seems like I’m not the only person who seems to realize this isn’t the worst of the worst approaches. IMO, not doing this would result in many more people being affected in more negative ways.

What Apple does in the future will be interesting.

 

[Abazigal]

But an Apple evil is treated as an ‘Atta boy’ by Apple apologists.

You don’t see a problem with that?

Depends on your perspective.

The original premise was that Apple deliberately slowed down your phone with the express intention of imposing forced obsolescence and making users upgrade. Which implied malice on Apple’s part, where there was never any to begin with.

When that narrative turned out to be untrue, the goalposts have now shifted to “Apple could have better communicated this to us”. And even as we speak, that is now forking into “Apple could have included a toggle and let us choose” arguments.

I just don’t think that what Apple has done here is all that unjustified in the greater scheme of things.

 

[0004986]

I just signed up to this forum to reply to your specific post.

I hope you like the taste of your shoe. I can record video of my wife's 2 year old 6 taking over 15 seconds to open the camera app....every day of the week.

You're just wrong on this, and you should stop being such a defender of Apple on this. EVERYONE has been telling you fanboys for years phones were doing this, and you didn't believe them

Prove that an iPhone 6 takes "over 15 seconds" to open the Camera app and I'll buy you the shoe for him to eat. Also while you're at it, make sure your device doesn't have a (literally) broken camera.

I owned a defective iPhone 6 and it doesn't take more than 3 seconds if not 5 seconds on it's worst day.

 

[2IS]

So people are talking about Apple working to ensure their phone still works properly even when the battery wears down, as it inevitably will?

That sounds like complaining for the sake of it.

No, it isn’t. I’d rather have the phone shut down so o KNOW there’s a problem and get the battery replaced either under warranty or pay for it vs thinking my phone is simply getting old and can’t handle my apps and spend $1000 on a new phone.

 

[IG88]

Once again, nothing untoward here, even though many chose to jump on the Apple conspiracy bandwagon.

There isn't a conspiracy solely because Apple says so? Why weren't they forthcoming about it to begin with then? The only reason they're even acknowledging it now is because of overwhelming evidence of throttling.

 

[VPrime]

I wonder if the Apple Watch does this as well.
I have the original Apple watch and notice that my battery doesn't last as long any more. Since the last update it's become incredibly slow using just the work out app (I don't have any 3rd party apps on it. Only use the work out app and activity app)

 

[PickUrPoison]

BS, a larger battery with a larger capacity will wear out slower and provide a constant voltage longer than a smaller capacity battery..

And if that constant voltage isn’t high enough, then what?

Changes to the output voltage are affected by chemical changes within the cell. A Li-ion battery pack with a few hundred cycles will no longer be able to provide its original voltage, regardless of capacity.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Apple's battery pack or Tesla’s.

Hint: cells in parallel do not increase the available voltage.

 

[macfacts]

Your phone has an issue. My 7 year old iPhone 4 on iOS 7 doesn’t take 15 seconds to open the camera app. I have never had a phone including the iPhone 6 that takes more than a few blinks of the eye to open the camera app.

What is your purpose for making this statement? Are you accusing those that say it takes over 5sec to open an app as liars? Or are you confirming that iOS is a hot mess and gives random performance?

 

[Altis]

Apple can run battery health tests and determine remaining battery capacity compared to new. They generally recommend replacement if it's less than 70% original capacity. It's not their fault when people refuse to replace their battery, which is often the case.

The throttling is happening well above the 80% threshold, during which the health status is considered "Healthy" and a replacement is not advised (some people saying Apple will not do it).

This is forgiving the fact that people will have no idea to suspect the battery as a culprit to poor OS performance.

 

[MN7119]

My wife’s 6S goes from a 100% battery after a all night charge to 30% in 30 minutes after taking from the charger without even using it. She took to a local Apple Store and they tested and said the battery is at 80% of its capacity so doesn’t need to be replaced. She has the latest iOS on her phone so I am guessing that is what is causing the battery to drain so fast.

 

[bigfatipod]

The part about "Apple offers battery replacement in stores" is not really true. I've gone twice to an Apple store to have them assess my battery. They refused to let me pay them to replace the battery because their diagnostics passed.

I'm in the situation where Apple won't even let me pay to replace my battery even though I have random shut downs and blatant CPU throttling when below 50%.

It's funny you mention that - I had the exact same experience.

 

[Schwyz]

My iPhone 6s, which is less than 2 years old, runs at 600MHz. New, the processor ran at 1600MHz -- over twice as fast as it runs now. For comparison, an iPhone 4, which was released over 7 years ago, ran at 800MHz when new!

Not only has Apple significantly slowed down their devices, but they did so behind their customer's backs! It's stunning that a $700 iPhone released 2 years ago can be slower than a near vintage iPhone 4.

How is this remotely acceptable?

I would expect Apple to offer free battery replacements, or at the very least half priced, but they have continued charging $80 for a battery replacement (as if a 2 year old, $700 product should be expected to have such ridiculous issues).

_____________________
Also, Apple's claim that this was done to preserve battery life falls flat on my end. My iPhone 6s lost 30% of its battery life as soon as I upgraded to iOS 11, leaving me with ridiculously short battery life and an obnoxiously slow phone. I cannot believe I am considering upgrading a 2 year old phone nearly out of necessity.

 

[Act3]

Hint: cells in parallel do not increase the available voltage.

yes but they provide more "ass" to keep the voltage (potential) at a constant value

 

[sanook997]

For a technical publication with technical readers its absolutely ludicrous that Apple needs to explain itself to the tech world. This is a brilliant management tool in the best interests of the user experience.

 

[rjp1]

I do understand what you are saying.

BUT.. Without this patch, the iPhone would have spontaneously rebooted or shut down. I would argue that a slow phone is better than dead phone.

HOWEVER, I what I would really rather see is a warning message like this when I try to open such apps: "This iPhone's battery has been degraded and you may experience decreased performance."

Once you pass the threshold it runs in degraded/unusable mode even while plugged in. If this was just a battery issue, then the problem should temporarily disappear while on a charger.

Honestly, I think there is a bigger problem and they are hiding it behind the battery. My 6S+ had the battery cut off at 20-40% issue and they exchanged it for a brand new battery. The problem happened again within a day. They announced the “defective” batteries later that week and my phone wasn’t included. If it was a software issue, then surely they would have already fixed it in iOS. I’m guessing it is a hardware fault and they’ve come up with this solution to avoid doing a recall.