Apple Makes $29 Battery Replacements Available Immediately for iPhone 6 and Newer

[javisan]

My 6S Plus is covered through AppleCare through February 2018 so I scheduled an appointment at my local Apple Store to have my battery replaced. Through the software coconut, I noticed that the current capacity of the battery is at ~73% when, per Apple, should be at 80% since it has 507 cycle counts.

At the Apple Store they ran the diagnostics and told me the battery was "in an excellent condition", close to 87%.

Could this coconut software be so off/inaccurate or Apple BS-ing me to avoid replacing the battery for free?

I don't know if I should try again or just let it be.

 

[Rob_2811]

Wanted to give a heads up of my experience. I just attempted to schedule a battery replacement for my iPhoneSE and the support guy said the SE was not covered and I had to remind him that it’s newer than the 6. He then corrected his mistake and he had me run the diagnostics app. The results of the battery test were fine. Here’s an excerpt from the chat session attached.

He confirmed the battery was fine. I asked if replacing the battery would speed the iPhone up. He said yes. So yeah, basically I have to pay $29 for them to just unthrottle my iPhone.

So disappointed.

Is the phone definitely being throttled? The SE isn't even two years old yet is it?

 

[Hal~9000]

Here's the timeline of what happened:

• They realize the fundamental design defect in the iPhone 6/s: the device's peak voltage demand was way, way too high relative to the battery's capabilities. This defect was not present in previous devices, and was fixed in the iPhone 7.

Just curious weup togo: If this defect was only on the 6/6s and was fixed in the iPhone 7... why is Apple putting out this throttling virus "feature" onto the iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2 (plus soon to be 8 and X models with a future iOS update)???

 

[Rob_2811]

The whole point of the slowdowns is to avoid unwanted shutdowns and all the inconveniences that come with it. It's fine to be sitting in front of your computer and go "I am fine with random shutdowns" and it's another when your phone actually does shut down when you are trying to do something important like call for emergency services or dial an Uber because you are in a hurry.

A slower phone is better than a phone you can't actually use, and I don't see Apple ever allowing its users to make that choice..

There are cases of phones barely a year old being throttled no? Why would year old phones be randomly shutting down?

 

[LovingTeddy]

I don't think Apple is going to be able to address the multitude of actions taken by consumers in the wake of their phones slowing down. What they can, and are doing now in the very least, is to tackle the consumers who are still holding on to older iPhones and affected by the throttling patch.

I am aware that this matter was brought up in a previous thread, and I know that my comments did come off as being curt and insensitive, which was never my intention. I am not going to say "What's done is done, so suck it up". What I can suggest is to look forward and see this as a learning opportunity of sorts. You are going to have to upgrade your iPhone 6 eventually at some point (if not this year, then the next year or the year after that, as it eventually stops getting supported). Rather than fret over the $800 you have spent, which you are unlikely to get back unless you sell off your current iPhone 8 and go back to the older 6, maybe focus on the improved capabilities of new iPhone 8 you do have and the possibilities they enable, and this should suffice in lasting you for a good many more years over what the iPhone 6 would have.

You have 3gb of ram (over the iPhone's 1gb), a significantly better camera, Taptic Engine, A11 processor, Hey Siri, better display, wireless charging, improved waterproofing amongst other goodies, albeit with the notable absence of the headphone jack. And if the phone does slow down with iOS 12 (as hinted by Apple), you now know to have the battery replaced to remedy the issue, assuming you are still willing to stay with Apple at this point.

What do you think Apple should do in your situation? Reimburse you the full price of the iphone 8? Reimburse the difference in upgrade pricing? Genuinely curious.

Apple plans to implement same power management feature to iPhone 7，which is bearly one year old at this point. You never know if Apple would throttle iPhone 8 next year.

If customer can show proof that they came to Apple store and Apple refused to reolave battery. And customer brought new iPhone instead, Then Apple should process refund. Simple is that. Apple store employeed misled customer, therefore, customers have right to demand refund

 

[joeblough]

My 6S Plus is covered through AppleCare through February 2018 so I scheduled an appointment at my local Apple Store to have my battery replaced. Through the software coconut, I noticed that the current capacity of the battery is at ~73% when, per Apple, should be at 80% since it has 507 cycle counts.

At the Apple Store they ran the diagnostics and told me the battery was "in an excellent condition", close to 87%.

Could this coconut software be so off/inaccurate or Apple BS-ing me to avoid replacing the battery for free?

I don't know if I should try again or just let it be.

i would try again. i had what turned out to be a software problem that was draining my battery in just hours' time, but i went to the store thinking my iPhone 6 battery was bad. they ran the same diagnostic and told me the battery was fine and sent me home. i ended up wiping and restoring the phone and isolated the app that was causing the problem.

a few months later i noticed i'd wake up to a fully charged phone, but after 20 mins of twitter my battery would be at 80-85%. so i went back to the store and complained. the genius tried to shine me on again, but i told him, look, the last time it was software and it was clear that the phone was hot and just running full tilt. but here, it's just normal usage wearing the battery so fast. he went in the back to talk to a repair tech and came back saying that because the battery had 700+ cycles on it that it would be reasonable to try replacing it.

so you might try waiting a while and going back to the store and see what happens.

 

[Vytas Vytautas]

There are cases of phones barely a year old being throttled no? Why would year old phones be randomly shutting down?

Probably because it was used in more extreme conditions and has more charge cycles than on average it should reaching that level of degradation much faster?

 

[Abazigal]

There are cases of phones barely a year old being throttled no? Why would year old phones be randomly shutting down?

I can't answer that, as I simply don't have enough information from Apple to know exactly the threshold at which the OS decides the battery is simply no longer healthy enough and therefore triggers the throttling. I can only infer from our discussions so far that the throttling is somehow linked to the overall health of your battery, which can in turn by affected by a multitude of factors, from temperature, to the weather, to your charging habits. All of which will differ from user to user.

 

[Abs_p]

My 6S Plus is covered through AppleCare through February 2018 so I scheduled an appointment at my local Apple Store to have my battery replaced. Through the software coconut, I noticed that the current capacity of the battery is at ~73% when, per Apple, should be at 80% since it has 507 cycle counts.

At the Apple Store they ran the diagnostics and told me the battery was "in an excellent condition", close to 87%.

Could this coconut software be so off/inaccurate or Apple BS-ing me to avoid replacing the battery for free?

I don't know if I should try again or just let it be.

I have seen Apple's diagnostics pass on absolutely ****** battery. I had a 3 year old 5S, no one was using it but I never sold and then it basically just lied in my drawer for a long time, used iBackupbot AND coconut battery to know the battery percentage and got the same 73% @ 390 cycles. Apple says battery is healthy, I say BS. 2 softwares on two different computers gave the me same number ie 390 @ 73% and Apple says it's healthy, yeah right.

My suggestion is to keep talking to them. Tell them your phone restarts and the battery life sucks. That should do the trick, keep doing it til they do something about it.

 

[Vytas Vytautas]

My 6S Plus is covered through AppleCare through February 2018 so I scheduled an appointment at my local Apple Store to have my battery replaced. Through the software coconut, I noticed that the current capacity of the battery is at ~73% when, per Apple, should be at 80% since it has 507 cycle counts.

At the Apple Store they ran the diagnostics and told me the battery was "in an excellent condition", close to 87%.

Could this coconut software be so off/inaccurate or Apple BS-ing me to avoid replacing the battery for free?

I don't know if I should try again or just let it be.

Coconut is inaccurate.

 

[Michael Scrip]

iPhone 6S Plus - 2 years old - Original battery

Geekbench 4

100% Battery Plugged in

Single-Core 2566
Multi-Core 4410

50% Battery

Single-Core 2552
Multi-Core 4454

25% Battery

Single-Core 2185
Multi-Core 3856

So... my benchmark scores are lower at 25% battery charge than at 100% or 50%

Is this an example of throttling? Should I be checking other things?

 

[joeblough]

BTW here is what i don't understand about this throttling.

1) my iphone6 has a new battery which i paid $79 to replace about 9 months ago. i have about 200 cycles on it. per geekbench 4, it benchmarks at 1100 if the battery is full, around 1000 at 50% and about 900 at 30%. if i plug it in at 30% (with an iPad charger), it still benchmarks at 900. shouldn't there be plenty of power available to run unthrottled while plugged in and charging? furthermore, isn't this battery "chemically new" enough not to need this drastic throttling?

2) my kids have the same kind of iphone6, which i never upgraded to iOS 11. even with 75% battery, one of them benchmarks at 1600. how the heck could iOS11 be that inefficient? it really seems to me that they have just slowed down the older models.

 

[Rob_2811]

I can't answer that, as I simply don't have enough information from Apple to know exactly the threshold at which the OS decides the battery is simply no longer healthy enough and therefore triggers the throttling. I can only infer from our discussions so far that the throttling is somehow linked to the overall health of your battery, which can in turn by affected by a multitude of factors, from temperature, to the weather, to your charging habits. All of which will differ from user to user.

If phones that are a year old are needing to be throttled to stop shutdowns then Apple has got some explaining to do ...

I have seen Apple's diagnostics pass on absolutely ****** battery. I had a 3 year old 5S, no one was using it but I never sold and then it basically just lied in my drawer for a long time, used iBackupbot AND coconut battery to know the battery percentage and got the same 73% @ 390 cycles. Apple says battery is healthy, I say BS. 2 softwares on two different computers gave the me same number ie 390 @ 73% and Apple says it's healthy, yeah right.

My suggestion is to keep talking to them. Tell them your phone restarts and the battery life sucks. That should do the trick, keep doing it til they do something about it.

So have I.

I had an iPhone 7 that would lose 20+% battery while locked in my desk drawer at work for an hour. They told me several times that it was fine before they eventually agreed to replace it.

 

[Vytas Vytautas]

iPhone 6S Plus - 2 years old - Original battery

Geekbench 4

100% Battery Plugged in

Single-Core 2566
Multi-Core 4410

50% Battery

Single-Core 2552
Multi-Core 4454

25% Battery

Single-Core 2185
Multi-Core 3856

So... my benchmark scores are lower at 25% battery charge than at 100% or 50%

Is this an example of throttling? Should I be checking other things?

It's fine.

 

[B4U]

That's normal . In cold conditions , batteries last less.

Totally understand that, hence I listed the reason as well.

 

[deferredAnon]

The whole point of the slowdowns is to avoid unwanted shutdowns and all the inconveniences that come with it. It's fine to be sitting in front of your computer and go "I am fine with random shutdowns" and it's another when your phone actually does shut down when you are trying to do something important like call for emergency services or dial an Uber because you are in a hurry.

A slower phone is better than a phone you can't actually use, and I don't see Apple ever allowing its users to make that choice.

I think the customer should be given the option whether his/her phone should be slowed down. Not everyone is having 'shutdown' issues, especially the one year old iPhone 7. We never had any shutdown issues on our iPhone 6 and we have three in our family for three years.

Apple started throttling in January 2017, but we never had any problems for two years. That is something I know as a fact.

 

[B4U]

-edit-
double posted due to network issues.

 

[Vytas Vytautas]

I think the customer should be given the option whether his/her phone should be slowed down. Not everyone is having 'shutdown' issues, especially at one year old iPhone 7. We never had any shutdown issues on our iPhone 6 and we have three in our family for three years.

In a perfect world where Apple could assume everyone is well reasoned and educated probably, but in this imperfect world full of brightest rays of sunshine any option Apple could possible pick to remedy this problem would be met with whining and crying and outrage.

The history of similar "issues" is very clear.

 

[itguy06]

The whole point of the slowdowns is to avoid unwanted shutdowns and all the inconveniences that come with it. It's fine to be sitting in front of your computer and go "I am fine with random shutdowns" and it's another when your phone actually does shut down when you are trying to do something important like call for emergency services or dial an Uber because you are in a hurry.

A slower phone is better than a phone you can't actually use, and I don't see Apple ever allowing its users to make that choice.

Again, most users would rather have a phone that shuts down randomly as that signals there is a problem that needs attention. I know my 6+ would get wonky at about 30% battery life, especially when cold. A phone that takes a very long time to accomplish tasks (like 10 seconds to bring up a page in Safari over WiFi) is pretty darn useless anyway.

I'd rather have the phone that's speedy but dies randomly when the battery is low vs the phone that takes forever to do tasks and makes me want to throw it against the wall. With the random shutdowns I know something needs fixed. With the slowdown I have no idea.

 

[Rob_2811]

I think the customer should be given the option whether his/her phone should be slowed down. Not everyone is having 'shutdown' issues, especially at one year old iPhone 7. We never had any shutdown issues on our iPhone 6 and we have three in our family for three years.

If there are iPhone 7s being throttled then that is very questionable.

How bad can a battery be on a phone that is only fifteen months old at most? That cant be natural battery degradation short of somebody going through several cycles a day and living in Siberia.

 

[Rogifan]

I think the customer should be given the option whether his/her phone should be slowed down. Not everyone is having 'shutdown' issues, especially the one year old iPhone 7. We never had any shutdown issues on our iPhone 6 and we have three in our family for three years.

Apple started throttling in January 2017, but we never had any problems for two years. That is something I know as a fact.

How do you know iPhone 7’s are being throttled?

 

[Abazigal]

I think the customer should be given the option whether his/her phone should be slowed down. Not everyone is having 'shutdown' issues, especially at one year old iPhone 7. We never had any shutdown issues on our iPhone 6 and we have three in our family for three years.

That's what "unexpected" means. Just because you haven't had any shutdowns in your iPhones so far is no guarantee that you will never experience them, and the whole point is to prevent them before they actually happen. Not for the consumer to have to experience a few random shutdowns first (and the inconvenience that comes with them), and then agonise over whether they want to trade performance for stability.

That's why we pay Apple to do, make the tough decisions for its users so they don't have to. And the downside of taking the initiative to anticipate user needs is that Apple will sometimes guess wrong.

Think of it as the government essentially mandating that everyone has to be insured. Sure, there will be people who will stay healthy and never fall ill or get into a single accident their entire lives, and so they will effectively be paying an annual premium for nothing, but that doesn't mean the insurance was wasted on them.

 

[Vytas Vytautas]

Again, most users would rather have a phone that shuts down randomly as that signals there is a problem that needs attention. I know my 6+ would get wonky at about 30% battery life, especially when cold. A phone that takes a very long time to accomplish tasks (like 10 seconds to bring up a page in Safari over WiFi) is pretty darn useless anyway.

I'd rather have the phone that's speedy but dies randomly when the battery is low vs the phone that takes forever to do tasks and makes me want to throw it against the wall. With the random shutdowns I know something needs fixed. With the slowdown I have no idea.

You have asked most users and determined that or just found written on a napkin lying on the floor?

 

[deferredAnon]

If there are iPhone 7s being throttled then that is very questionable.

How bad can a battery be on a phone that is only fifteen months old at most? That cant be natural battery degradation short of somebody going through several cycles a day and living in Siberia.

How do you know iPhone 7’s are being throttled?

https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-and-battery-age/

"The distribution of iPhone 7 scores under iOS 10.2.0, iOS 10.2.1, and iOS 11.1.2 appears identical. However, the distribution changes with iOS 11.2.0 and starts to look like the iPhone 6s distribution from 10.2.1."

 

[Abazigal]

How do you know iPhone 7’s are being throttled?

Apple flat-out admitted to it.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/20/a...ones-with-older-batteries-are-running-slower/

"Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."