Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS

[RedGala]

Planning on replacing as soon as I get the chance

 

[manu chao]

What I’m not understanding from the Apple apologists on here is one simple question: How is not disclosing a feature that purposefully slows down a phone to hide a defective or older battery so the the end consumer never thinks to check for bad battery so they go ahead and upgrade to a new device NOT considered manipulative and misleading?

The current Low Power Mode does slow down the phone to a small extent (at least by suspending Background App Refresh) and is triggered semi-automatically (by automatically prompting the user when the battery capacity hits 20%). Nobody has a problem with that. If they had extended this concept to include the slowdowns implemented with 10.2.1, most users would have chosen it to prevent sudden shutdowns.

The problem is really not informing the users and possibly being way to aggressive with the slowdowns (a 20% slowdown during 20% of my day is something else than a 60% slowdown every time the phone is unplugged). I personally never noticed more than a moderate slowdown, and I ran my battery down to 30% of its original capacity with over 500 charge cycles (ie, I replaced the battery not because the phone felt slow but simply because it wouldn't last even half a day).

 

[apolloa]

Here's the timeline of what happened:

• AppleCare's escalation team approaches Engineering and says, "We're seeing a ton of in and out of warranty returns and repairs due to degraded batteries. This is costing us millions of dollars. Can you figure out why the iPhone 6/s failure rate is so much higher than normal?
• Engineering gets ahold of some Failure Analysis captures from the field to reproduce the issue. They find that when the battery voltage drops due to age or cold weather, the sudden shutdowns occur.
• They look at the peak voltage demands from the iPhone 6/s relative to the battery output curve.
• 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.
• Engineering, AppleCare, Marketing and sundry Management discuss next steps. They're not going to do a recall, admitting the design defect, because the PR and financial hit would be in the tens of billions. They don't want to keep replacing phones or batteries, because that's costing millions. They're not going to put in UI letting users know their battery needs serviced, because Marketing forbids any public discussion of anything being wrong with Apple products.
• Engineering says, "This is just a voltage problem. If we drop the clocks, we can ensure the devices never go over the peak battery voltage." Thanks to the power management hw & sw, they have good data on the battery voltage potential. The CPU already runs at lots of different clock speeds, depending on load. So it was a very simple change to detect the battery voltage max, and set the max clock speed below that threshold. Problem solved.
• Engineering Management tells senior Execs "Okay, we have a fix for the sudden shutdown failures, but devices are going to be slower as a result. We really need to surface this to users, to mitigate the bad experience." Marketing says absolutely not we never say anything is wrong with Apple products. AppleCare says please just ship it, we have a huge pile of defective phones building up.
• Apple rolls the dice and ships the silent software change, hoping the expensive returns will go down, customers will at least be able to use their devices, if in a degraded state, and prays no one will ever figure out the hack.
• People slowly start figuring out their devices are slower. Finally the GeekBench guys query their database, and the CPU clock/voltage throttling sticks out like a sore thumb.
• All hell breaks loose, and here we are.

It's critical to keep in mind this is not just about "worn out" batteries. Battery voltage drops with cold weather. My iPhone 6 was exhibiting this design defect when it was only a year old, as soon as I exposed it for the first time to cold weather. It would shut off instantly when I stepped outside. After a few months, the shutdowns became frequent as the battery did begin to "wear out" but in my case, this battery was marginal from the factory. Apple Engineering completly screwed up by allowing so little margin between max voltage requirement and worst case battery performance. No other models have had this problem before or since.

This is a coverup for what should be the biggest product recall in history. As long as Apple has people yelling at each other over battery chemistry, they win.

You also forgot to mention as others on here have done, that in iOS 10 Apple removed the information iOS displayed in the battery status and condition, and then it introduced the throttling in 10.2......

So they deliberately reduced the information they or other apps could tell you about your battery.

Introduced this throttling crap and told no one, only claimed they made some power management enhancements.

They told the genius staff to be religious and only replace batteries if the diagnostics software says to.
Despite the throttling software throttling phones with capacities higher then the diagnostics software deems needs replacing.

So they in effect made everyone believe their phones were slow due to iOS updates and led them to think they needed to upgrade.

And they have only admited it after the public caught them doing it and tested it, backed up with a big database of test results.

Yeap, Apple will suffer over this one.

 

[Aydy]

I can list at least three friends of mine who have owned older Samsung devices and ran into this before a battery replacement and told me about it.

I’m an iPhone user but have used many androids previously and never ran into any of those issues tbf. Not saying what you say isn’t true just that it isn’t exactly accurate

 

[Radon87000]

It's only "planned obsolescence" when apple admits it. I'm waiting for them to admit it. But you actually think most consumers are that ignorant to believe this old tired meme?

Also you cant prove Samsung phones shutdown like you claimed earlier

 

[sigsegv]

As many others have pointed out here, the problem is the coverup (or "lack of transparency") because it leads to many of us questioning the motive. I'm not referring to the technical motivation - that is already clear - but the motivation for keeping quiet about it.

I was affected; in my family we have a 5s, 6, 6s, and 7. Recently (before the truth came out) my wife and daughter started complaining that some iPhone software update had dramatically slowed down their phones (the 6 and 6s). This caused them to opine that software updates are bad and they aren't going to install any future updates. I heard about this A LOT!! I am the first support point for phone issues in this house.

I was rather dismissive of their complaints and didn't give it much thought until the news came out.

The strange thing is that the batteries in the 6 and 6s were still functioning well; there was no indication that anything was wrong in the battery, still had multi-day runtime (without games and youtube). I then decided to measure the performance before and after new batteries. Sure enough: CPU performance was 40-50% down, and was fully restored after battery replacement.

"No big deal" I hear you all say. Well, I disagree.

1. This caused non-technical people to distrust software updates. No amount of explaining on my part is going to fix that. Their phones were working well (good batteries, no shutdowns) and slowed to a crawl after an update; noticeably enough to connect the two events.
2. I'm out of pocket unnecessarily.

I'm also questioning Apple's motivation for not giving any indication that the batteries needed replacement. Leads me to thinking that if they did so they would be faced with a huge flood of costly AppleCare warranty replacements and potentially a lot of unhappy device owners.

So they decided to add the 'feature' and hope nobody noticed a 40-50% slower phone.

Contrast this with how they introduced "low power mode" - that feature is useful.

 

[timborama]

Hello manu chao and thanks for your reply. My personal experience was at an Apple store a few months ago. I went there because my iphone was very slow and I thought there was a problem with it. I had restored it to factory settings. They told me the iphone was slow because it was old (iphone 6) They recommended to replace my phone soon!

At the same time without knowing my phone was slow because of the battery, I asked them to replace my battery because it wouldn't last more than an hour! They run their diagnostics and told me my battery passed every test and it was fine. I precisely told them I understand my iPhone is not under warranty so I don't expect them to replace my battery for free but they still refused to change it. I didn't insist more than that as you put it because my alternative was to take it to a non apple store to replace it there as I did.

After that my iphone suddenly got fast again. Back then I had no idea why...but now with all this battery throttling issue that's on the news now I can definitely connect the dots..

That’s why I always go to an authorized Apple service center rather than Apple store (listed on Apple.com). I can’t stand dealing with “geniuses”, they always have such an ego. I wonder if that’s part of their training.

 

[Rockin Robin]

What annoys me about this and other things like it is that it sets the precedent that an uninformed public can develop an "outcry" over anything get a result out of Apple. Real shame. The public didn't deserve this level of compromise from Apple. Intelligent CPU management of a device powered by lithium-ion battery is expected and appropriate, and really no one's business besides the engineers.

 

[manu chao]

They withheld this info on purpose so people would just buy a new phone. If it wasn't the case, why didn't workers offer battery replacements to people that come into the store complaining about slowness? It's because this solution/information was withheld. It's really that simple. No matter how they spin it, deep down, you know that's what did they to generate more revenue on new phone purchaes. Plain Greed and shady as hell.

Deep down you know that Apple's initial reaction was to avoid paying for free battery exchanges. They did not design the iPhone 6 battery in 2014 such that they could release a software update in 2017 to slow the phone down.

 

[Bsgreubel]

Only solves part of the problem. For years Apple have sold phones to people who thought their old phone was dying and that they needed to get a new one, when really all they needed was a battery. I think they should address that issue.

"for years" They literally said they implemented this in iOS 10.2.1 which came out less than one year ago...

 

[Rockin Robin]

Hear,hear. I would be disappointed were i to find out that Apple had done nothing to mitigate a failing battery. I have kids with laptops still functioning after 5 years’ work and 3 of Uni. That is engineering!

 

[justperry]

Fixed

 

[AT&T representative]

What about iPad? They have batteries too

 

[neutralguy]

The class action lawsuit should be continued as many customers have upgraded their phones and shelled out considerable amount of money (at least 500$) when this problem could have been fixed by $79 battery upgrade. There is no other way to confront Apple and change their attitude besides such lawsuits. I am glad I moved to S8. But I feel bad for the rest of my family who are using 3 iphones.. 2 of them are iP6 and iP6+ which are running dog slow! It's time for Apple to learn and also Tim Cook to stop coming up with ways to generate profits by backstabbing the loyal customers!

 

[mac_in_tosh]

Is there any indication that an intentional slowdown based on battery health has also been used in Apple laptops?

 

[sigsegv]

Deep down you know that Apple's initial reaction was to avoid paying for free battery exchanges.

Precisely. The threshold for this engineering solution was a lot lower than their AppleCare battery replacement policy. Making this public would have meant they would have to relax their replacement criteria; costly!!

 

[neutralguy]

How is slowing down a device forcing anyone to upgrade? Apple is not putting a gun to your head making you buy a new phone.

yes, they are with their closed echo system. With Android, if Samsung throttled, one could switch to Google or HTC or some other Android variant. What's the option for iphone users who have spent considerable amount of money in buying all the apps? Isn't it same as putting a gun to our heads?

 

[apolloa]

Fixed

Fixed it now stupid auto spell ha ha, that’s on my 6S and the latest iOS 11, I find it better then androids auto spell though, I use it as an excuse to myself to get an iPhone X because it’s keyboard will be slightly bigger haha.

Yes I will still keep using the iPhone despite this battery issue, because I like them. I plan on keeping my 6S though still just in case. It doesn’t slow down for me.
I’ll have to run those checks to see what capacity my battery is at.

 

[ChrisChaval]

What about iPad's? they're failing to include those. I'm not paying $299 for a battery.

Normal price is $99 for a battery replacement for any eligible iPad

$299 is for screen replacement ecc

https://support.apple.com/ipad/repair/service

 

[MH01]

I didn't miss the point or Google. The auto shutdown in iOS only exists to prevent damage to the phone in certain processor load/remaining charge scenarios. Apple added to that safeguard by introducing CPU throttling that prevents the auto shutdown so users still had some level of functionality instead of a shut down phone. You still haven't explained why you think this type of safeguard is suspicious when you completely accept the idea of throttling the CPU to prevent heat damage to the phone.

Or are you trying to claim that the power draw relative to the battery charge couldn't potentially cause damage in certain situations?

I'm saying the battery is defective and should be replaced ! Putting the iPhone into cripple mode should only be a temporary measure until you get the phone to a retail store for battery replacement .

The issue here is that Apple turned a temporary safeguard .....safeguard ....into situation normal ....

It's like me taking in my computer to you to fix , you see a faulty fan, though instead of replacing the fan you decide to half the CPU frequency to reduce the heat so the heat sink works passive.... hoping I buy a new computer from you.

Do you understand why throttling is not okay? A system should not be running throttled ....

Thermal throttling is also an accepted practice, it it protects a very expansive component , what Apple is doing is not , they should be replacing the battery - as they offer the service .

Explain to me why the user should not be informed that the battery is faulty and the system is throttling until such time the battery is replaced .

Throttling to save a CPU is fine, throttling due to battery being defective is not.... big difference , the CPU is never defective when thermal throttling happens, though the component causing the excess heat needs to be fixed .

 

[Steve's Dead]

You don't need a magical battery. Bigger one will do. Besides Apple processors have a different architecture. Maybe they have higher peak power consumption? We'll learn this eventually.

We'll learn this eventually? Maybe you'll eventually learn to take a couple months off posting whatever you can manage to string together on here, and read a little bit about how phones work

 

[gnipgnop]

So they decided to add the 'feature' and hope nobody noticed a 40-50% slower phone.

That isn't what Apple did, and the solution to slow-down problems with iPhones isn't guaranteed to be related to the battery. The link below describes a scenario that sounds very similar to what people are complaining about (installed a new version of OS on a 6s, phone performance slowed down) and it was resolved through a local backup, phone wipe, and restore. No new battery needed.

http://mglenn.com/blog/2017/12/22/apples-bungled-battery-feature

 

[deanthedev]

What facts ? Tell me the facts that point to iOS 11 being a good release ?

Tell me the facts pointing to it being a garbage release?

Do you understand statistics? Do you know what a “representative sample” is? Do you understand how ridiculous it is for you to point me to a support forum as evidence that it’s garbage?
[doublepost=1514574509][/doublepost]

I am not arguing with someone who calls Android crappy. It seems an exercise of frustration to me if that’s the argument being resorted to.

No different than everyone here calling iOS crappy.

 

[Mark Booth]

Planning on replacing as soon as I get the chance

On your iPhone, go to Settings/Battery. Look to see if there is an ALERT at the top of the screen. If present, the alert will say: “Your iPhone battery may need to be serviced.” If your iPhone doesn't show that alert, then it is highly unlikely that Apple will replace your iPhone's battery.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207453

Mark

 

[Ladybug]

Begs the question that if Apple knew these batteries were inadequate since the 6s then why keep using the same inadequate batteries for newer phones.

What about people (myself included) who just purchased a 8 or X because our batteries likely won't degrade enough before this replacement program ends.

More importantly moving forward what will Apple do to correct this permanently so people don't have to worry about throttling and poor batteries.

Replacing batteries is great for those effected but it's just a bandaid. Apple needs to address this long term.