Apple's Alleged Throttling of Older iPhones With Degraded Batteries Causes Controversy

[jlc1978]

I don't get why Apple would do this (nor HOW they would do it). All slowing down someone's iPhone would do is make that person get frustrated and want to get a different phone -- and possibly not an iPhone. If, on the other hand, the person simply had a much shorter battery life, at least the iPhone would still be performing properly and perhaps encourage the person to either get it repaired or upgraded.

I would guess it's a tradeoff and Apple feels more users would notice decreased battery life than a slower phone. Having phone that only lasts say 4 hours is immediately noticeable and frustrating, vs slower loading pages, etc. which may be blamed on the network rather than the phone.

 

[Blaze4G]

Stating the thread is "huge" is all relative. Count the number of people in that thread and compare that number to how many iPhones Apple sells each year. Maybe it's not as big as a problem as your anecdotal evidence makes you think it is.

That being said, I'm not debating that you or anyone else is having a problem. Honest question here so don't take it the wrong way: Assuming what the Reddit user is claiming is true, would you rather Apple throttle the CPU and have your battery last longer throughout the day or run CPU as normal and run out of battery more quickly?

Just to take part in your question, I would rather run the CPU as normal and run out more quickly. It's quite frustrating trying to do something on my phone and it decides to lag and crash. Just think back of some past instance an app crashed or your phone was moving laggy when you needed to get something done quickly. How annoyed were you?

Some might say we'll at least you can somewhat use the phone Vs it being completely out of juice. However, I can easily have a battery pack with me to charge Vs having my phone be throttled permanently until the battery is replaced.
[doublepost=1513003784][/doublepost]

They could simply display a message, something like: "your battery is too old/damaged and you should replace it, in the meantime we're slowing down your phone in order to preserve the battery".

Yep! I agree. Some say that Apple wouldn't do this because if the phone is in warranty then this message would prompt customers to claim warranty work. It will be interesting to see what they do.

 

[mattynat]

They sent me an email saying to bring my phone into the Apple Store for a new battery. I made an appt. for 4:00pm and the genius informed me I'd need to leave my phone with them overnight.

Outraged, I spoke to a manager about how the email made no mention of this and asking her "who can leave their phone overnight?!" but it was no use, so I still have the defective crap they sold me.

Looking around the room that day there were so many sad customers, it seems "shock and disgust" is the new "surprise and delight" at the Apple Store, great job Angela.

and if you just did it that night, you would have missed what? being able to be pissed at Apple because higher than normal amount of people brought their phones in and they needed to quote overnight because they couldn't get them all done in time? maybe the surprise and delight was that if you dropped off your phone, they would have fixed it before the overnight happened? or maybe you would have been pissed at Apple because they fixed it too quickly and you would have to drive down to the store twice in the same day..........

 

[snoonw]

Sounds like what happens to my Samsung phones. Slows down every single year a new phone is released.

i have a nexus 6 still works good as new i am considering getting a pixel 2 but my nexus 6 isnt the reason. and a funny thing happened this thxgiving I was with 30 family and taking pics and my pics were the best there were more then 10 iphones and several samsung phones but my pics were so crisp everyone loved me taking their pics from my aging nexus 6

 

[Hicksmat1976]

Is this a good score for a 6S PLUS?

 

[Jmausmuc]

Read the reddit thread. It’s not n=1 so why would you claim it is?

Read the reddit thread. It’s not n=1 so why would you claim it is?

Stating the thread is "huge" is all relative. Count the number of people in that thread and compare that number to how many iPhones Apple sells each year. Maybe it's not as big as a problem as your anecdotal evidence makes you think it is.

That being said, I'm not debating that you or anyone else is having a problem. Honest question here so don't take it the wrong way: Assuming what the Reddit user is claiming is true, would you rather Apple throttle the CPU and have your battery last longer throughout the day or run CPU as normal and run out of battery more quickly?

I want my processor speed to remain the same. If I wanted to save battery at the expense of speed, I would use low power mode.

If I buy a phone because it is advertised as faster than the previous one, I don’t want it to throttle its speeds just because it’s battery is one year old.

 

[spacemnspiff]

This is a 6s and runs snappy on iOS 11.2.

And it looks about right for 6s.
http://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?q=iphone+6s

 

[e1me5]

This is my 6S. Ran Geekbench on another 6S and it got almost the same score. Both phones feel sluggish since iOS 11.

I get these numbers when I run my 6s with Low Power Mode On. Are you sure you didn't deactivate it before running the benchmark?

 

[magicschoolbus]

I downgraded from iOS11. The software was so terrible, websites would not even load.

10.3 fo life. Even have a new battery because of the recall.

iOS11 is a virus on a 6s.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My wife's 6s had the battery replaced during the recall campaign and within a year, it's back to shutting down between 20 and 30 percent, dying very quickly, etc.

There is no reason her 6s should be in this bad of shape 2 years after purchase.

MY wife's 6s+ didn't qualify for the battery replacement but it had the same symptoms. We'd be doing Ingress in the park and under 60% her phone would randomly die, poof, shut off, we'd start it back up to see 8% battery life left. She'd have to charge her phone 3 times in one day with her usage. Took it into Apple, they said there was nothing wrong with the battery even though their diagnostics failed to complete ... 3 times in a row. So I basically paid $80 for a new battery for my wife's 6s+ - but that went to the trash bin because that Apple store destroyed her phone - we got it replaced for free but I couldn't get my $80 back. Her new 6s+ was "surprisingly" faster and lasted easily over a day on a charge.

I noticed this issue going back to 10.2.1, the update that fixed the random reboot issue. Basically, Apple decided that instead of fixing hundreds of thousands of defective batteries, they’d rather throttle performance to prevent the reboots.


After I figured this out, I fought them tooth & nail for them to replace my battery. I was finally escalated to a senior AppleCare advisor, who agreed to replace my battery which fixed all performance issues I was having.

This has nothing to do with old batteries.

I think this is exactly what is happening. Defective batteries. Instead of pay millions upon millions to replace defective batteries, they mitigate the problem by lowering cpu frequency so the phone doesn't shut off when the battery can't supply enough voltage to keep the thing running.

At first I was critical but if you look at these users with the apps - their CPU shows 600mhz 900mhz and even the benchmarks reflect this - they replace their battery and it goes back to what it should be.

 

[Jmausmuc]

Is this a good score for a 6S PLUS?

Yes, this looks like the normal speed. Does not appear to be throttled.

Maybe try again with battery below 40%?

 

[votdfak]

Seems like Apple could just create a script that pops up warning users their battery is no longer meeting specs and the phone's performance will be lowered to prevent damage until it's replaced.

You can install coconutbattery for macos, it handles iOS devices fine. If your device battery is under 85% capacity, it's due to be replaced.

 

[Hicksmat1976]

You can install coconutbattery for macos, it handles iOS devices fine. If your device battery is under 85% capacity, it's due to be replaced.

80%

 

[Smartass]

Can this also affect Bluetooth connectivity? Because ever since ios11 i've notice A LOT of random suttering while playing music on my BT speakers or headphones.

 

[BigMcGuire]

80%

Correct - 80%. I've found that here in the USA most Apple Stores will not replace your battery unless it is under 80% even if you say you'll pay for it. Has to be under 80%.

 

[mikecorp]

we know that they do it.
My iphone 5 after update is completely unusable, Ipad 2 is slow as .....
Apple should make test and notify users if the device will be slower than before.

 

[sinsin07]

I have no proof, and I know this was mostly related to the iPhone 6s, but my iPhone 6 "hit" the bed soon after iOS 10 was released. Basically it would randomly die after about 50% battery. No warning at all. It would just turn off. It was working perfectly find before then. I took it to Apple, they tested it, said the battery was fine. Did lots of restores and set up as new. Did not help.

So it had to be an iOS issues. After months of killing myself with the issue I broke down and bought a 7. Win for Apple. Does make me wonder to this day - not that Apple did something purposeful, but that they really did not dedicate much time learning how iOS 10 worked internally on older models.

Thanks
Same issue on iPhone 6Plus.
Happened to be in Apple store with my daughter for another issue when this shutdown occurred again.
I had started carrying spare batter pack and was able to go to counter and show Genius the issue.
They ran diagnostics and told me my OS was corrupt. Nothing wrong with battery.
Did a setup as new, same issue, gets to around 50% and then it's a guessing game as to when it will shut off.
Glad I don't have to deal with it anymore after upgrade.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks
Same issue on iPhone 6Plus.
Happened to be in Apple store with my daughter for another issue when this shutdown occurred again.
I had started carrying spare batter pack and was able to go to counter and show Genius the issue.
They ran diagnostics and told me my OS was corrupt. Nothing wrong with battery.
Did a setup as new, same issue, gets to around 50% and then it's a guessing game as to when it will shut off.
Glad I don't have to deal with it anymore after upgrade.

Yep, Apple Store told my wife with her 6s+ same thing - "No problems with your battery, it is green!" --- what battery randomly shuts off under 60% under high CPU usage?! What battery, when shut off, starts up with a quarter capacity? (It would shut off at 40% and we'd turn it back on and it would say 8%. Plug it in and it would jump from 8% to 40% in minutes.

Willful ignorance imo.

 

[Jmausmuc]

Correct - 80%. I've found that here in the USA most Apple Stores will not replace your battery unless it is under 80% even if you say you'll pay for it. Has to be under 80%.

Even if you pay for it??
Are you for real?

 

[tridley68]

I don't get why Apple would do this (nor HOW they would do it). All slowing down someone's iPhone would do is make that person get frustrated and want to get a different phone -- and possibly not an iPhone. If, on the other hand, the person simply had a much shorter battery life, at least the iPhone would still be performing properly and perhaps encourage the person to either get it repaired or upgraded.

Apple wants you to get frustrated and they are banking that you will purchase a new phone this is a pretty sneaky and dirty thing my I phone 6 that was purchased by my work has had horrible battery life ever since upgrading to IOS 11 I start getting error messages it 20% and from there on my battery diminishes very quickly.

 

[bjwhite3114]

Keeping the phone usable and avoiding random shutdowns seems to make sense, but alerting the owner to battery health might be prudent by Apple. An alert similar to: "Your battery is no longer performing adequately, so a lower power mode will be automatically enabled to avoid unintended shutdowns. Please contact an Apple technician regarding options for your phone battery."

 

[BigMcGuire]

Even if you pay for it??
Are you for real?

Sadly this is the case. I'll let other members collaborate my story but yep. Here in the USA Apple will refuse to replace your battery unless it is under 80% from design capacity even if you're waving $80 in their face.

 

[tridley68]

my work provided me with a I phone 6 and battery has been horrible since upgrading to ios 11

 

[BigMcGuire]

Keeping the phone usable and avoiding random shutdowns seems to make sense, but alerting the owner to battery health might be prudent by Apple. An alert similar to: "Your battery is no longer performing adequately, so a lower power mode will be automatically enabled to avoid unintended shutdowns. Please contact an Apple technician regarding options for your phone battery."

Then Apple would have to pay for it in most cases - which is why they probably didn't do that this time. (Our assumption). Hence the fraudulent claims and outrage.

 

[Jmausmuc]

Sadly this is the case. I'll let other members collaborate my story but yep. Here in the USA Apple will refuse to replace your battery unless it is under 80% from design capacity even if you're waving $80 in their face.

I remember when I was at the Apple store because my 6S would randomly shut down. They also tried to tell me my battery was perfectly fine at 96%. In the end they agreed to replace it thought, because they have a menus on their diagnostics software where they could actually see that I had multiple shut offs at 20% and higher.