Just ran mine on my old 7 Plus. 15 months old and was used heavily. Did I luck out?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Will Replace the Battery in Your iPhone 6 or Later Even if It Passes a Genius Bar Diagnostic Test
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Just ran mine on my old 7 Plus. 15 months old and was used heavily. Did I luck out?
Incorrect. Geekbench automatically triggers the throttling because it doesn't run with the normal idle cycles of a regular app and intentionally loads the CPU to maximum at the same time. Unless your battery is EOL or defective, performance issues aren't going to have anything to do with the battery unless the charge is below 20%. That's when the voltage is going to drop below nominal very rapidly and could potentially create a scenario where the throttling is required to prevent a shutdown.
I am in the same situation. I am Apple gadget freak and I don't have a problem with them ... yet.
Well for people like my parents who dont really care about optimal performance. I will try to replace the battery near the end of 2018 to extend the life of their iphone 6 as long as possible.
Everyone who thinks optimal performance comes from replacing a non-EOL or non-defective battery is going to be very disappointed if they do it. All you're going to get is increased capacity. The way the battery supplies voltage to the CPU isn't really going to change at all.
How much so you think a single cell ~3000 mAh Li Ion Battery costs these days? Especially in the volumes Apple is ordering?
Probably 4 USD is rather on the hide.
https://cocoa.me/product/1-cell-3-7v-li-ion-battery-3000-mah/
Apple didn't create the problem, they just changed it from low battery life one to low performance one.
In North America, Apple has retail stores, not service centres.
The iPhone 6s was only 1 year old when Apple introduced the cheat software that throttles. The iPhone 7 is only about 1 year old and Apple is throttling that now. Where do you get over 3 years from?
They’ll bring a lot of money to the lawyers and a cup of coffee to the class action participants. Or maybe in this case, a free battery replacement.
[doublepost=1514903005][/doublepost]Does anyone know how to run the battery diagnostic?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Key thing to do is run Geekbench again just before you go in to change the battery. Then run it again after it has a new battery in it.
Keep in mind the whole sequence of events here:
- Geekbench has illustrated that iPhones slow down with iOS "upgrades"
- Since that's a quantitative and repeatable experiment, it's hard to refute the "before & after."
- Apple has then spun it away as "older batteries," as if by throttling, they are doing something for all users (yes, I recognize this can be passionately argued both ways)
- In doing so, Apple has connected the quantitative & repeatable experiment slowdown to the idea that it's ONLY an aging battery triggering this iOS slow-down code
- Conceptually, that means when an older iOS device has a brand new battery installed by Apple, the Geekbench scores should jump right back up.
On a bigger picture scale, there has long been conspiracy speculation that Apple writes throttling code into iOS updates to make older iDevices feel slower... to motivate us to buy new iDevices sooner. If there is any code in iOS that is there to do this, that could be the actual cause of the before & after Geekbench-measured slowdown, instead of- or in conjunction with- code that slows things down with an older battery. In other words, what if the battery excuse is just that- almost a "you're holding it wrong" excuse that Apple hoped would smooth over this whole thing? What if it's not the battery or barely the battery, but other iOS code specifically intended to make iDevices run slower with age?
Conceptually, that code- if it exists- also needs to be turned off after this battery is swapped. Else, users who happen to have Geekbench scores from when the prior battery was new will still be able to illustrate a quantitative, objectively-verifiable slowdown in spite of replacing an old battery with a new battery. Thus, there's potentially a second Geekbench reveal in the wings here: after replacing the battery, how does the iDevice stack up against it's scores when it's prior battery was also new?
- If it's about the same, one might conclude that Apple told the truth and these slowdowns are in fact associated with aging batteries.
- If it's meaningfully inferior, it implies that there is other throttling code in iOS purposely slowing down older iDevices (even with brand new Apple batteries) and thus, this gesture doesn't actually address the real, underlying problem.
Last edited:
The iPhone 6s had a battery replacement program due to defective batteries within a specific run in manufacturing. Customers with those phones were experiencing an unusual number of auto shutdowns That's what initially prompted Apple to provide the feature in iOS that would prevent auto shutdown. However, that doesn't mean auto shutdown could only occur with a defective battery. It could also occur below 20% charge when the battery (due to the standard limitations of lithium ion technology) can't supply nominal voltage anymore.
[doublepost=1514903283][/doublepost]
That's not going to tell you anything of value. Geekbench triggers the slowdown by itself, so all it's doing is telling you how much Geekbench itself is being slowed at the current voltage level of the battery. An app that has normal idle cycles and is not programmed to load the CPU to maximum at the same time isn't likely to be slowed down until the battery starts to lose nominal voltage, which is typically at 20% or lower charge.
You clearly don't understand what's going in here. People aren't complaining batteries are failing.
They're complaining that Apple slows down their phones when batteries degrade, even when Apple says it's healthy, and Apple did not disclose this. Apple didn't do this prior to the 6. Other OEMs don't do this.
It's fine if Apple must do this, but why didn't they disclose this? Why didn't Apple say- "hey, a new battery will improve not only battery life, but also performance!"
Instead, they led people to believe it's just the OS, and upgrading was the only way to improve performance. This is shady. This is what the lawsuits are about- that consumers weren't told a new battery can boost CPU performance.
Great. Don't take advantage of the new battery replacement policy then.
We demanded the change and there were always people like you who sided with Apple. If everyone acted like you, we'd still be paying $79 a battery. Bah, forget about battery replacement. The most likely case is that you will be paying $1,000 for a new phone.
If you think this is wrong, don't take it. You were not part of the change so get lost.
Hate to tell you, but no. Apple has always responded to mass revelation and outrage to their poor business practices. so no, nothing has changed. If you want Apple to change you have to be loud, obnoxious, and get the media on your side. Otherwise, Apple will continue to think you are just a dumb customer that should be ignored, because the all powerful and all knowing Apple knows best.
It costs 95 US dollars to have your iPhone battery replaced in Sweden according to Apples website. Apple Sweden sucks.
Yep. Anyone praising Apple for this gets the Apple Sycophant of the Year Award -- and it's only Jan 2. No need to even wait. Way too many of us iP6 users had this very problem and were told by Apple Geniuses that our iP6s were all okey-dokey according to official Apple diagnostics. This helps none of us now even though we were financially harmed here by Apple's doing -- intentional or not. They knew what was going on and tried to conceal it as long as they could. It took an outside test to do it. No one can say TC is a better person than SJ. He's just as deceitful in this regard.
If Apple was truly acting in good faith here they'd make some token gesture to former iP6, 6s, and 7 users who were harmed here but could not keep using their iP6 and bought a new iPhone instead.
Last edited:
I think the issue is Apple’s test only checks capacity, where a normal battery doesn’t have voltage issues below 80% capacity, there is no way to verify a defective battery that may have abnormal voltage at higher capacities at this time.
But it would be a lie for Apple to say that unless the battery is defective or at end-of-life. The reason 80% capacity is considered end-of-life for lithium ion batteries is because that's the general point where they will lose the ability to provide a predictable range of voltage as they discharge. Prior to that, a brand new battery and a used battery with capacity above 80% will provide the same range of voltage during discharge. It's not really possible for the newer battery to "improve" performance due to that reality.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I appreciate this attempt at proactively covering up the potential second round of this. I'm sure Apple does too.
But consider this: if a Geekbench test detected this, why didn't Apple spin what you just spun instead of ADMITTING TO THE PROBLEM? It would have saved Apple all this negative PR and the extra profits in charging $79 instead of $29 for battery replacements. Apple's admission was driven by Geekbench testing. Pretending like Geekbench wouldn't matter now doesn't seem to fit the sequence of events, especially Apple's own action here. To make the your post make sense, you have to be calling Apple WRONG for taking action on a tangible remedy to a quantitative score that apparently doesn't matter (now).
If Geekbench scores are as you imply, the throttling down code when the iDevice's existing battery was new would have been similarly applied. In other words if the benchmark is X when the existing battery was new, it was X whether your suggestion of the Geekbench measurement itself causing a throttling event applies or not. More simply: it would have slowed it down then too.
So, spend the $29, put in this new battery and run the test. If things are as you say, it will trigger the app "heavy load" throttling again but should still come in at a score close to X.
Otherwise, there is OTHER code in iOS that throttles older devices, NOT related to the newness of the battery. That will show itself in subsequent Geekbench testing before and after this battery is replaced.
- If such other code exists, this problem will get bigger for Apple (the battery excuse is either just an excuse or only a part of the problem).
- If such other code does not exist, iDevices that Geekbenched at X when their existing battery was new should be near X again when Apple puts in a new Apple battery.
Last edited:
Ha. Good job? At what hiding the truth from consumers for a couple years until as many as possible would just buy a new phone and go away. Apple isn't doing this out of good heartedness. It's doing it because it was found out and it has the makings of a PR disaster for them. They are just doing the minimal required to make it look like they back up their products otherwise they'd reach out to all iP6, 6s, 7 users who got tired of dealing with this issue and were told by Apple a new battery was not a fix.
I doubt that. I'm sure Apple has a step-by-step process (similar to many other hardware troubleshooting issues) where different approaches are tried and if none of them work, then a defective battery is the most likely scenario. Backup, wipe, and restore works for a lot of people with performance issues...which is why it's recommended as one of the steps to try.
I was turned away a month ago for 81% capacity. It was A VERY LONG drive for be and I am still VERY ANGRY about it.
So, where do iPhones go when you send them in for repair?
Do you have any proof the U.S. does not have service centres?
Both genuine questions.
There is a service centre where I live, no-one is telling you though, I know, don't ask me how I know, it's confidential.