Other Apple is slowing down older iPhones based on battery wear level [MERGED]

[MH01]

I am positive that if you bring your phone into an Apple Store this week and tell your story to the store manager they will swap out the battery for you.

Due to 23 lawsuits in progress and the world press? Hmmmm shame it got to this point that Apple would allow the gentleman to change the battery in a device they own, and charge him $29.

There is also a strong possibility they will say no, as the phone has been serviced by a 3rd party....

 

[macsforever]

Simple. It's not a promotion. It's something they tried to pull a fast one on customers and escape unnoticed exactly like how they did with Touch Disease but they got caught this time around. They probably won't refund me the amount as it's 6 months old but the fact that their batteries are so low quality entitles the refund to everyone within a year range.

Note they are still making a killing on that $29 battery. They have admitted the fault but are still making a ton of money despite that.I bet it doesn't cost more than $10.

That’s AWESOME!!!!

 

[mackinmike]

Here's what sucks - the Apple Genius refused to replace our iPhone 6 battery earlier this year, and it was running slow and using up 1% of battery every 2-3 minutes right in front of the Appel genius.

Genius says, "battery is fine, go home, wipe phone, and set up as new". That didn't work and we couldn't restore it back to the way it had been, because the iTunes backup was corrupt for some reason, and the phone was refusing to backup to the cloud (errors).

Another store refused to replace the battery as well, so we took the phone to Batteries+Bulbs and with the new battery it was running like normal again. But now Apple refuses to touch the phone ever again because they forced our hand to go to a 3rd party for a battery. Even if we wanted to go back to an OEM battery by the end of the year, it will never happen thanks to their eff'd up policies.

Do yourself a favor and make the switch to something else.

 

[Tor Eckman]

1. Batteries can go from 100% to 80% pretty quickly, just a few months, if the owner is straining his iPhone or has bad habits like my son whose phone is constantly lighting up with Snapchat alerts, runs down to 30% in a few hours, runs down to 2%, and then gets charged for a few minutes back to 20% then back down to 2% and up and down all day.

2. The Consumer Electronics Industry runs at a 5% defective rate and I'm sure consumables like batteries run even higher. If there are defective 7 batteries out there, the new iOS protocol helps users avoid shutdowns.

I was replying to the poster that said the 7 shouldn't get current software updates and only the newest model should.

 

[Abs_p]

Do yourself a favor and make the switch to something else.

To harsh tbh. His concern is valid. As a long time iPhone user, Apple while being very good with aftersales, you can still have YMMV experience. I have had times when despite being able to reproduce heavy battery drain issue, the proposed resolution has been to restore the phone. Last such experience was iPhone 7 that had battery drain issue 4 weeks after getting it. Was refused a repair/replacement at first, told to restore. Restored, no dice. Went again after a week and the guy swapped it out for another phone after confirming that despite battery passing diagnostic, getting 3-4 hour of usage with 8 hour of standby for days was not normal.

Another incident was when my sister's 6S had battery issue and because battery passed diagnostics, they wouldn't do anything about it despite it having 4 weeks of warranty remaining. I then waited till the warranty ran out, basically asked them to let me pay them for an OWW replacement, $299, succeeded at 2nd trip at another store and then Amex's extended warranty reimbursed me. I thought of selling the phone before doing this but then thought it was unethical for me to sell an obviously faulty device.

Having said that I have had multiple positive experiences but an Apple Store experience is YMMV depending on what store you go to and I have been lucky that I live near a store that is very good in general.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Do yourself a favor and make the switch to something else.

I'm too invested in Apple ecosystem and it's too hard to switch - everything on the cloud syncing with all my devices, and hundreds of iTunes movies with DRM that wont play on anything else, etc. They've got me by the ball hairs.

 

[tomjleeds]

1. Batteries can go from 100% to 80% pretty quickly, just a few months, if the owner is straining his iPhone or has bad habits like my son whose phone is constantly lighting up with Snapchat alerts, runs down to 30% in a few hours, runs down to 2%, and then gets charged for a few minutes back to 20% then back down to 2% and up and down all day.

2. The Consumer Electronics Industry runs at a 5% defective rate and I'm sure consumables like batteries run even higher. If there are defective 7 batteries out there, the new iOS protocol helps users avoid shutdowns.

Still following your “blindly ignore the obvious and repeat your previous ignorant point” approach I see.

Just stop. It’s embarrassing.

 

[Radon87000]

I was replying to the poster that said the 7 shouldn't get current software updates and only the newest model should.

I don't understand why a device should be updated if it's going to slow down. The vast majority use their phones for Facebook,whatsapp,iMessage and Instagram and iOS 10 can do that. iOS 11 is just going to slow down the phone or make its battery run out faster which interferes with these basic tasks. So why update?
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Due to 23 lawsuits in progress and the world press? Hmmmm shame it got to this point that Apple would allow the gentleman to change the battery in a device they own, and charge him $29.

There is also a strong possibility they will say no, as the phone has been serviced by a 3rd party....

I know it's wishful thinking but I hope they lose every single one of those cases and the number of lawsuits filed reaches 100. This problem about older iPhones slowing down has been there for a very long time and it's time something was done about this.

 

[Tor Eckman]

I don't understand why a device should be updated if it's going to slow down. The vast majority use their phones for Facebook,whatsapp,iMessage and Instagram and iOS 10 can do that. iOS 11 is just going to slow down the phone or make its battery run out faster which interferes with these basic tasks. So why update?

I agree as long as the previous os is still getting security updates, like OSX.

 

[boltjames]

I don't understand why a device should be updated if it's going to slow down. The vast majority use their phones for Facebook,whatsapp,iMessage and Instagram and iOS 10 can do that. iOS 11 is just going to slow down the phone or make its battery run out faster which interferes with these basic tasks. So why update?

Anyone who has had an iPhone for more than 5 years knows that by the end of Year 2 you should never update to the newest iOS being released and there are clear warnings in the Terms And Conditions about degradation in performance, but people hit that AGREE button anyway.

As for Apple's intent, they lose either way. If they withhold the latest iOS from users of 2+ year old phones they'll have unhappy people who want the new features, and if they provide the latest iOS to users of 2+ year old phones they'll have unhappy people whose phones are slowed.

Apple attempted to make both groups happy by power managing those with old batteries and look what happened. They should just cut 'em all loose, tell the world that if your iPhone is over 2 years old it's no longer supported, freeze them on the last version of the original OS and move on.

 

[Samuel79]

It would not be surprising if apple make there next ios version a fair tad lighter to give the phones a a bit of oomph then just before the next iphone lunch when its all under the carpet get back to doing what they do best and that is slowing down iphone to sell new models

 

[mackinmike]

I'm too invested in Apple ecosystem and it's too hard to switch - everything on the cloud syncing with all my devices, and hundreds of iTunes movies with DRM that wont play on anything else, etc. They've got me by the ball hairs.

I hear you. I've gradually switched and don't regret it. Once you see that it's not so difficult with other platforms, you'll feel comfortable. That first step is always that fear of the unknown but I hate being in a nutclamp.

 

[Radon87000]

Anyone who has had an iPhone for more than 5 years knows that by the end of Year 2 you should never update to the newest iOS being released and there are clear warnings in the Terms And Conditions about degradation in performance, but people hit that AGREE button anyway.

As for Apple's intent, they lose either way. If they withhold the latest iOS from users of 2+ year old phones they'll have unhappy people who want the new features, and if they provide the latest iOS to users of 2+ year old phones they'll have unhappy people whose phones are slowed.

Apple attempted to make both groups happy by power managing those with old batteries and look what happened. They should just cut 'em all loose, tell the world that if your iPhone is over 2 years old it's no longer supported, freeze them on the last version of the original OS and move on.

The solution to the problem is to allow downgrades of the OS. Those who want features can stay on the latest versions. Those who don't want performance or battery life to be affected can downgrade.

 

[Hal~9000]

The solution to the problem is to allow downgrades of the OS. Those who want features can stay on the latest versions. Those who don't want performance or battery life to be affected can downgrade.

I would definitely agree with this ^.

Apple already allows downgrades on MacOS... why not iOS devices? Simply because they can get away with this planned obsolescence on iOS devices and it's more profitable to practically force software upgrades that slow down phones and degrade battery life which persuades your customers into buying a new model

In addition to your great idea Radon, I'd also add that they should completely seperate security patches from OS updates. There's no reason (besides greed) that my 6s should be forced to update to an OS version that the hardware isn't suited to handle well, just so I can get a security update

 

[Tor Eckman]

The solution to the problem is to allow downgrades of the OS. Those who want features can stay on the latest versions. Those who don't want performance or battery life to be affected can downgrade.

Apple should also provide basic security updates for older versions of iOS for a while and then people could run an older os on older hardware and be fine. This is how OSX has worked for years.

 

[anonymous guy]

Made a refund inquiry on Apple's AppleCare line: 1 (800) 275-2273

I went to a third-party authorized service center to get my battery replaced after Apple refused to service it themselves (pre-policy change).

They were able to find the authorized service notes via phone serial number, but some details were missing compared to in-house Apple Store repair notes.

Provided a few phone images to Apple of the service receipt via their support website.

I'll be receiving my credit via wire transfer in 3-10 business days


This process should be easier for people who had their replacements done at an Apple Store. Reminder: Apple's internal cut off date is 12/14/2017. If you had your replacement done prior, they will not honor the price difference.

 

[I7guy]

The solution to the problem is to allow downgrades of the OS. Those who want features can stay on the latest versions. Those who don't want performance or battery life to be affected can downgrade.

I can see Apples' side of this however. For example allowing a downgrade to ios 9 would means they would allow installation of an operating system that is not patched with KRACK wifi and bluetooth vulnerabilities as an example. Could Apple in good conscious allow it's customers to install such an operating system? Should they patch it and simultaneously support ios 9, 10, and 11 and even ios 8? I don't know the answer to this, but I don't think it's as cut and dry and just allowing a user to downgrade to any operating system of their choice.

 

[Hal~9000]

I can see Apples' side of this however. For example allowing a downgrade to ios 9 would means they would allow installation of an operating system that is not patched with KRACK wifi and bluetooth vulnerabilities as an example. Could Apple in good conscious allow it's customers to install such an operating system? Should they patch it and simultaneously support ios 9, 10, and 11 and even ios 8? I don't know the answer to this, but I don't think it's as cut and dry and just allowing a user to downgrade to any operating system of their choice.

It's really simple... but not as profitable for as Apple's planned obsolescence via forcing users to update Apple:

Offer security patches that don't require a full iOS update.

Android manufacturers are able to do this with tons of different phones and skinned versions of Android. Apple can too.

 

[C DM]

It's really simple... but not as profitable for as Apple's planned obsolescence via forcing users to update Apple:

Offer security patches that don't require a full iOS update.

Android manufacturers are able to do this with tons of different phones and skinned versions of Android. Apple can too.

The idea can certainly be really simple.

 

[Radon87000]

I can see Apples' side of this however. For example allowing a downgrade to ios 9 would means they would allow installation of an operating system that is not patched with KRACK wifi and bluetooth vulnerabilities as an example. Could Apple in good conscious allow it's customers to install such an operating system? Should they patch it and simultaneously support ios 9, 10, and 11 and even ios 8? I don't know the answer to this, but I don't think it's as cut and dry and just allowing a user to downgrade to any operating system of their choice.

Yes they should simultaneously support all 3. They do it with macOS. Why is iOS an exception?

 

[Puddled]

The solution to the problem is to allow downgrades of the OS. Those who want features can stay on the latest versions. Those who don't want performance or battery life to be affected can downgrade.

This wont happen because Apple cannot disable CPU throttling. Doing so would expose the Iphone's sub-par battery to the full wrath of power hungry CPU. The warranty returns would be huge.

Not happening

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Yes they should simultaneously support all 3. They do it with macOS. Why is iOS an exception?

A great advantage of iOS is the number of users on the latest software releases. Not just for Apple, but also for support of quality software for App developers.

I would not be a fan to introduce the same/similar levels of fragmentation that other platforms are encountering. There is no benefit for anyone to do that.

In order to satisfy those who think they know better, and don't want to refresh their consumables, Apples best way forward would be to enable a 'switch' default to enable power management that allows it to be switched off. Yet somehow I don't think that will satisfy some either...

 

[Puddled]

A great advantage of iOS is the number of users on the latest software releases. Not just for Apple, but also for support of quality software for App developers.

I would not be a fan to introduce the same/similar levels of fragmentation that other platforms are encountering. There is no benefit for anyone to do that.

In order to satisfy those who think they know better, and don't want to refresh their consumables, Apples best way forward would be to enable a 'switch' default to enable power management that allows it to be switched off. Yet somehow I don't think that will satisfy some either...

What consumables are those?

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Batteries

 

[I7guy]

This wont happen because Apple cannot disable CPU throttling. Doing so would expose the Iphone's sub-par battery to the full wrath of power hungry CPU. The warranty returns would be huge.

Not happening

Or there could be other reasons that maybe are not known to you, that are very rational.