Apple Will Replace the Battery in Your iPhone 6 or Later Even if It Passes a Genius Bar Diagnostic Test

[IPadNParadise]

If I wasnt so far from an Apple Store, I would take my 7+ in for a battery replacement. Just to see if they try to get out of it. I can assure you, it has no defects. I am 71, retired and bought this iphone a year ago, strictly for safety when I’m out, my family insisted. I have kept the cellular data turned off and never used the phone other than a very rare phone call. I do leave it on all the time so there is some wear on the battery, but I usually dont have to charge it but twice a month. Just curious if they say it has “defects”.

 

[gnipgnop]

I don't know what you are referring to.

He's referring to the general issues with lithium ion batteries. EOL batteries won't be as stable for voltage, cold weather effects battery performance, low charge reduces available voltage, etc.

 

[OllyW]

The root cause of this fiasco is Apple using defective crappy $2 battery with short life in a nearly $1000+ device then slowing it down via software gimp code to cover up the defect while baiting customers with a battery replacement PR offer only to deny them at the store to coerce them into buying a new device.

I don't think they have been specifying defective crappy batteries but they have been using batteries that are too small and don't have enough capacity to cope when they inevitably start deteriorating with age.

 

[cmaier]

So Apple pushes an iOS that rapidly drains our battery

That statement is completely false. The software change reduces current draw from the battery, meaning it drains less quickly.

 

[spazzcat]

I don't know what you are referring to. The iPhone 6, 6s issues were related to iOS 10. I'm 100% that only iPhones, not all phones, run on iOS 10.

All phones have the issue with turning off when the CPU load is too high for the battery to handle as the battery ages.

 

[RickInHouston]

↑
Brilliant logic there. Many Android devices are pretty much EOL the day they are sold. Old versions of Android and no updates. What you buy is what you get. How is that not the very definition of planned obsolescence?


This is the very reason why i would touch such devices only with a ten feet pole. But so far it seems legal as long as those devices function in the same poor way two years later. So far this practices havent been challenged by a lawsuit.

___________________________

Please, please stop making stuff up.

 

[gnipgnop]

In this case though, once Apple's battery excuse is tested, it potentially full circles back to the Geekbench results implying that iOS has OTHER code that slows down older iDevices.

John Poole of Geekbench has never implied that. His only comment was that if the user doesn't get a notification about why the phone is slowing, then they might think it was the CPU and not the battery. He never said anything about the slowdown feature other than that it was to "mask battery deficiency", which would apply in all three of the scenarios Apple specifically talked about: EOL batteries, batteries with low charge, cold batteries.

 

[sracer]

No it gathers Apple consumers. We consumers are free to love or like what Apple is doing or despise or not like what Apple is doing at any given time. It's not OnlyAppleLovers.com or OnlyAppleHaters.com. And personally, I find the most value myself by those who sit in the middle- offering their OWN consumer views of Apple stuff whether it's love or hate, like or dislike, rather than endless towing the company line no matter what or only faulting anything & everything no matter what. I get almost no benefit from unabashed "Apple is always right" worship or relentless "Apple is always wrong" haters.

If it became solely an alter of corporate worship (only) or a pit of corporate hate only, I'd personally see little value here. But it is a "forum" implying a desire for participants with both positive and negative views to share their thoughts. I find nothing wrong with either group myself; instead, I feel I can actually learn from diverse- and even dissenting- opinions as long as they have some objectivity. Can you?

This is the only appropriate response to your post...

 

[vvs14]

No, but it's the right thing to do.

Why is it the right thing to do? Its not a hardware issue. The battery is not faulty. It degrades like any lithium ion battery would do. No lithium ion battery will continue to perform like new after 2-3 years of regular use. This issue is about the software update and has strayed way off topic. If anything, releasing a new software update that reverses the throttling or gives users the option to turn it on or off makes more sense.

 

[mi7chy]

I’m curious why people who don’t even own Apple products care (or why they post here).

Why do you assume that and want to silence pro-consumer views so Apple fanboys and shills have their way at spreading pro-big Corp FUD?

 

[dlanor15]

And what of people like me who owned an iPhone 6 and noticed these performance issues long before this whole issue came to light and upgraded to a 7. I was perfectly fine with my 6 if it wasn't for it shutting down at 20-30%. I went to the genius bar and they said "everything is fine". It was about a month after the warranty was up so I had to leverage to fight their decision. I got an external battery to carry with me on my commute to work but I eventually got tired of it and got a 7.

I get it they are trying to do right by offering people battery replacements now, but i feel like crap and taken advantage of because I was literally forced to upgrade because of their failing batteries, and honestly I would have been fine with an iPhone 6 to this day, there is absolutely nothing to draw me to the newer ones.

This past holiday season my wife offered to buy me an apple watch because I was considering getting one and I told her not to because I am seriously on the fence about continuing to be in their ecosystem.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

John Poole of Geekbench has never implied that. His only comment was that if the user doesn't get a notification about why the phone is slowing, then they might think it was the CPU and not the battery. He never said anything about the slowdown feature other than that it was to "mask battery deficiency", which would apply in all three of the scenarios Apple specifically talked about: EOL batteries, batteries with low charge, cold batteries.

I appreciate your posts, but splitting hairs don't change the potential outcome of this.

Even if Poole would not retest this idea himself, others can. The genie is out of the bottle. There is historically published Geekbench results when iDevices were brand new. If only an old battery is to blame for them running slower now, a new Apple battery should get them performing back toward about where they were when they were new. There is no stopping this particular test.

 

[Rogifan]

Are you saying they disclosed it to the press last year before the update went live or only in the last few weeks once they got caught?

You are right it would be very difficult to prove without an email from exec A to exec B saying "hey you know what would bump sales next quarter?" but a judge would be able to make a reasonable ruling on what the average Joe would expect and the fact the Genius bar folks have been pushing people to upgrade makes it look all the more dodgy.

If I had upgraded due to poor performance after having my phone checked by someone at an Apple store I'd definitely be sending them a bill for a portion of the cost.

They disclosed it last February.

 

[BuddyRich]

Brilliant logic there. Many Android devices are pretty much EOL the day they are sold. Old versions of Android and no updates. What you buy is what you get. How is that not the very definition of planned obsolescence?

Speaking as someone who has spent time on the other side thats not true at all.

While its true you are at the Carrier and Manufacturer's mercy for system (kernel) updates, you get independent security updates monthly (though these are still carrier dependent - unless you buy a pixel or nexus - or load your own ROM).

The other nice thing about Android is that most of its major functionality is not in the system updates but is actually in the google play services app that is updated via the play store. For example Google Assistant rolled out to all phones running Lollipop (Android 5) or later. That's a major new feature. You didnt need to be upgraded from Android 5 to Android 7 to get it, you didn't need a kernel upgrade or anything like that, the functionality was seperated into an app and the app was updated independently and it worked with plenty of old devices. Much of Android core services are bundled that way and those updates don't stop until the latest play services is no longer compatible with your android version.

Thats one nice thing about Android. An old un-upgraded device is still very usable as apps tend to be backward compatible with old versions of Android much longer than on Apple. Apple devices get upgraded to the latest OS much longer - though sometimes with reduced feature set. The downside to that is that Apple apps tend to target the latest APIs, making them not backwards compatible with old devices (Apple might even enforce it via its app store policies by not approving apps that target older iOSes). Already I have a couple of apps that no longer install on my iOS9 stuck iPad3 -> minimum ios version for them is ios10. I thought that Apple would allow you to install the last compatible version to your device from the app store, but I haven't seen that work in practise (I think the app developer has to allow it).

It is a double edged sword, though, because Android apps don't always target the latest APIs either so new feature adoption is tepid at best. Sometimes really good features barely get used because Android apps target the LCD... which is somewhere around Android 5 level APIs right now.

 

[artfossil]

In North America, Apple has retail stores, not service centres.

There are two Apple service centers in my city. No Apple Store.

 

[justperry]

LOL except the update was exactly the opposite. It uses LESS battery to it DOESN'T drain it as fast thus keeping the device up and running verses randomly shutting down.

You don't know.
For instance, it now smoothes these peaks, you'll have to wait longer so your display is on for longer.

 

[dlanor15]

Why is it the right thing to do? Its not a hardware issue. The battery is not faulty. It degrades like any lithium ion battery would do. No lithium ion battery will continue to perform like new after 2-3 years of regular use. This issue is about the software update and has strayed way off topic. If anything, releasing a new software update that reverses the throttling or gives users the option to turn it on or off makes more sense.

I strongly disagree. Since the iPhone 6 I long suspected their battery performance are worst than before. My iphone 6 was shutting down at 20-30% just after one year. Yet my wife's older iphone 5S was outlasting my newer phone by hours. You can claim different usage patterns, but then how come my brother in laws hand me down iphone 4 was outlasting my 6 as well, and he's a teenager spending a lot more time using the phone watching youtube videos than I was. I also had a few coworkers who also said their iphone 6 and 6s were not lasting them through out the day. Something is seriously flawed with these newer batteries.

 

[Rocko99991]

I can't wait for the posts from people saying they got their (probably perfectly fine) battery replaced yet their phone still feels slow...

Buy Geekbench, run it, compare to online results. Easiest way to see if yours is throttles due to old battery.
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A few weeks ago, as I had to upgrade from my aging 6+, I opted for a Galaxy Note 8 over the iPhone X. As a full-Apple ecosystem user (Macbook Pro, iPad Mini, iPad Pro, etc), I was VERY apprehensive to take this move...

Well, the Note 8 (and Android as a whole) turned out to be a productivity BEAST. Im very happy I switched. Believe me, there is indeed life beyond Apple.

Windows, in the other hand, it is a no-go for me (yet). I have a gaming PC and I find Windows far clumsier than MacOS.

Android gives Apple a run for its money. Windows, not so much.

But no iMessage. All your texts to your apple friends will be green and really piss them off.

 

[617660]

That's your opinion.
Should Apple recall all these iPhones just because batteries are consumables?

Wait, is that what's beingdiscussed? Or were we on the point that the battery is defected and causes random shutdown?

 

[WannaGoMac]

Exactly. Honestly, I would have bailed some time ago if I didn't virtually everything and everyone I know running Mac/iOS. I do have a limit, though, and I'm closer than I've ever been to it. 2018 could be a very decisive year for me.

Same boat as you. iMessage and Facetime make life easier than the possible replacements (skype always logs you out somewhere which causes tech support issues for me)

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

There is no need to see evil intentions. It just gets worse when you apply them to the facts. It doesn't matter for me if Apple planned some kind of planned obsolescence. By withholding necessary informations about the root cause, neither me nor their genius (and the diagnosis software) could solve the problem. And the result is the same, a slowed down device for no apparent reason. And to add insult to the injury they denied a paid battery replacement, which would have solved the problem. No offense, but such corporate incompetence is not understandable at all.

That's assuming your battery is definitively the cause of your sluggishness. Many people have performed a restore and had a night and day difference. And presumably iOS 11 isn't doing it any favors.

There is a lot of information I would like to see. It might be out there, but I haven't really seen these specifics

1) A side-by-side comparison of throttled iPhone 6 and non throttled iPhone 6 (both from a fresh restore to remove any anomalies)
2) Information on iPhone throttling such as...
2 a) At what battery % does throttling begin? (probably can vary on battery, but perhaps there is a typical range)
2 b) Is throttling persistent after reaching x% battery? Or does it only throttle at times when processor is ramping up excessively
2 c) Is throttling always to the same degree or does it vary based on battery condition/%

As an aside, I also have an iPhone 6, so I also have an vested interest in this being handled well. I had a lot of issues/sluggishness with my 6 after iOS 11, but lately has seemed to be doing much better.

 

[macs4nw]

Too little too late. Apple genius denied the iphone 6 (of a family member) the 79$ out of warranty battery replacement back in september and suggested a hardware upgrade instead. I hope the lawsuits will hit them hard.

In the end, I don't believe the software tweaks that resulted in slower performance on iPhones with less than optimal battery condition were made maliciously, or in bad faith by Apple

They should however have been more transparent about the changes and perhaps given a user option to decline.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

This is the only appropriate response to your post...

I probably would have gone with this one...

...asking to identify who represents Apple and who represents Apple consumers in this commercial. I believe that both Apple and Apple consumers are supposed to be the woman with the hammer. But the way "we" carry on, I find myself wondering if it's Apple on the video screens and many of us as lemmings in the crowd.

The woman is now the troll or Samsung/Microsoft/Google/Amazon shill we work so hard to shout down. How dare she "think different"!

 

[WannaGoMac]

Buy Geekbench, run it, compare to online results. Easiest way to see if yours is throttles due to old battery.
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But no iMessage. All your texts to your apple friends will be green and really piss them off.

Totally, this. iMessage is just so well integrated with SMS and the vast majority of people I know use it...

 

[Rogifan]

I actually do own Apple products, but I dislike the company a lot [well these days anyhow]. I visit and post here simply because it is entertaining to watch and I find incredulous how strong opinions are and the lengths folks will go to defend them.

The site is not an exclusive club anyhow; folks should be free to visit and contribute without the need to own the products - the more the merrier for me!

So basically you dislike Apple but visit and post here for entertainment. This is why comments sections (all over the internet) have become garbage.