Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 5 shuts down at 10-20%

I noticed this also the other day. Got 20% alarm, then no time after, 10% alarm. Turned the phones screen off, then a short while later I turned it on and it showed 4%. I used it till it died then, once it got to 1% it seemed to last forever. I charged it up to full then.

Never noticed a problem before 6.1.2

I didn't want to update the iOS but the phone kept popping up a screen saying it will auto update in 10 sec if I didn't press the button... After a few of these alarms I finally gave in
 
DOUGHNUT said:
Today though, for whatever reason...when i was outside with about 25% battery left taking pictures, the phone suddenly shuts itself off. i immediately tried to reboot the phone, but it showed the no power symbol.

strangely, after a few minutes, i managed to get the phone boot up again without plugging it in and it was right back to 25%. something is very strange about this. maybe because it was cold outside?
Click to expand...

Mine's just done exactly this, for the second time in 3 days. I didn't notice exactly what the percentage was last time (I thought it was 10%+), but this time it was at 9%. Tried turning it back on, no power/charge symbol showed. Left it 10 minutes, it boots back up and is showing 9% again
 
mine never did that, however I do recall it staying at 1% for the longest time, with music playing and screen brightness on auto bout 25%
 
Yeah, normally mine can stay on 1-2% for a fair while, so I was somewhat shocked it went off on around 10%, especially as it's clear the battery isn't flat
 
I have this problem too

I brought my phone to the apple store in George street, Sydney. A technician told me that it was a software issue and reset my phone to factory settings. The next day, my phone turned off again when the battery was about 10%. The strange thing was my phone turned on when I plugged the cable to my phone without plugging the other end to the socket. There was about 7% left since I didn't do it straight away. I brought my phone to the store again the next day. This time, I met a different technician and explained to him everything. Surprisingly, he told me that it was normal. He even accused me of using the phone too intensively. I told him that I only used it normally e.g. for text messaging, browsing. He said even text messaging could be intensive and caused the phone to shut down unexpectedly. He acted as if the problem was my fault. After arguing for some time, he gave me two options: replace the battery at my own expense eventhough it's still under warranty or go away and think about what to do with my phone. I never knew there was such a rude guy at the genius bar... Very disappointed with Apple.
 
awakened23 said:
I brought my phone to the apple store in George street, Sydney. A technician told me that it was a software issue and reset my phone to factory settings. The next day, my phone turned off again when the battery was about 10%. The strange thing was my phone turned on when I plugged the cable to my phone without plugging the other end to the socket. There was about 7% left since I didn't do it straight away. I brought my phone to the store again the next day. This time, I met a different technician and explained to him everything. Surprisingly, he told me that it was normal. He even accused me of using the phone too intensively. I told him that I only used it normally e.g. for text messaging, browsing. He said even text messaging could be intensive and caused the phone to shut down unexpectedly. He acted as if the problem was my fault. After arguing for some time, he gave me two options: replace the battery at my own expense eventhough it's still under warranty or go away and think about what to do with my phone. I never knew there was such a rude guy at the genius bar... Very disappointed with Apple.
Click to expand...

You'll run into people like that from time to time. I've had good and bad experiences from geniuses.

I always get their name and call Apple if I get bad service or really good service. I've been using the same girl for a little over a year now, I won't buy an Apple product from anyone else as long as she's an employee at my local Apple store.

I'd suggest calling Apple. That's not normal. Maybe once in a great while not consistently.
 
my old white i5 pre aws did this because of iOS 7 I simply downgraded and let the battery die, charged the phone to 100% and left it there for a while then disconnected and rebooted phone


the problem went away...
 
cynics said:
You'll run into people like that from time to time. I've had good and bad experiences from geniuses.

I always get their name and call Apple if I get bad service or really good service. I've been using the same girl for a little over a year now, I won't buy an Apple product from anyone else as long as she's an employee at my local Apple store.

I'd suggest calling Apple. That's not normal. Maybe once in a great while not consistently.
Click to expand...

That's an eye opener. I thought we got premium services from Apple. I guess I was wrong.
The second technician showed me a graph about my battery condition. It was still not in the red zone but very close. The problem happens not consistently but quite frequently. I will need to go to the apple store again when my warranty is about to end. Hopefullly I will meet a genuine genius :) Thanks for your response.

----------
apollo1444 said:
my old white i5 pre aws did this because of iOS 7 I simply downgraded and let the battery die, charged the phone to 100% and left it there for a while then disconnected and rebooted phone


the problem went away...
Click to expand...

My iOS version is 6.1.4..
 
Was the original problem discussed in this thread solved? Or solved for anyone else who had a similar problem? Hoping that Apple will replace my phone.
Like others, mine's suddenly started shutting off randomly around 25-30% as well. Shows me a dead battery screen why I try to power on and won't turn on at all until I plug it in. After it starts up, battery life is where I left off at (not 0-1%, like it should be after a forced shut down due to a dead battery).
 
Mlrollin91 said:
Step 3: Let it sit for several hours, 3-4 hours is a good amount.
Click to expand...

Not necessary. 20 minutes tops is all the waiting it should need.

----------
DOUGHNUT said:
maybe because it was cold outside?
Click to expand...

If it was colder than the certified usage range sure it could do weird things.

----------
awakened23 said:
After arguing for some time, he gave me two options: replace the battery at my own expense eventhough it's still under warranty or go away and think about what to do with my phone.
Click to expand...

Rudeness aside, cause that is not cool. Their system is really strict about batteries. Batteries are a consumable item and aren't covered by the warranty or Apple Care unless their test system shows a failed battery. Ive worked in 9 different countries and dealt with glitchy iPhones and iPads in all of them and been told the same thing in all of them. Apparently there was such a huge flood of phones being swapped whole part for battery life that were totally fine that the system was rewritten to block it as an option. A manager can override it for customer service but I would think if they do it too much they would get in trouble so they likely don't.
 
My friend's 4S does this, but that's because it's permanent battery damage from being left out in a freezing car overnight.

Heat and cold both damage batteries, as does overcharging from a 3rd party charger.
 
My iPhone 4S has been doing this lately. Although it usually works fine, sometimes it shuts off at 10-12% and other times somewhere around 20%. It happens more often when I'm doing battery-intensive things like video recording. I've recalibrated several times, without improvement. I'm planning to take it in to the genius bar soon, since my AppleCare+ is still good.
 
I thought I was the only one to have this problem. I don't know the cause but if I need my phone I hold the power button and home button down should reset. Power it back on and your battery should be right were it was. Quick fix hopes this works for you problem sucks.
 
I had the same issue. 10-20%, shutting off - iPhone 5. Took it to Apple last week. They ran a 2-second diagnostic (using some funky software on their iPads). Turns out my battery was at 80% capacity after 300 cycles. They replaced the battery and it hasn't happened since.
 
I've recently been seeing that my iPhone 5 battery makes huge jumps spontaneously. I never saw this before in iOS 6. The battery does die when it hits 0% but it's the 10% drop from 60 to 50 that surprises me.
 
dieselboy27 said:
I've recently been seeing that my iPhone 5 battery makes huge jumps spontaneously. I never saw this before in iOS 6. The battery does die when it hits 0% but it's the 10% drop from 60 to 50 that surprises me.
Click to expand...

My iPhone 5 started doing these big jumps just after iOS 7 install and now it's been dying between 10% and 20%. When I plug it in after it dies it makes a big jump to 30% 'ish in less than 20mins.

Great user experience Apple... absolutely great!
 
iPhone 5 shuts down at 10-20%

I had the same thing on my i5.

Replaced the battery. Problem solved.

Edit. That was on iOS 6.1. Which I'm still using.
 
My 5 was going through the battery quicker, or so it seemed, and I went in and turned off more of the 'technology enhancements' and the battery now seems to last longer. I'm not ready to give up on the iPhone, or Apple, but will wait for the iPhone 6.

I love my Touch, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and wouldn't give up my iPad for anything. I have no desire to fight with lesser technologies to get done what I need to get done, however I am inclined to think that iOS 7 probably wasn't 'cooked' enough'. Not ready for 'prime time', and in this societal funk caused by all of the downer talk from the media about damn near everything, I think Apple will take a farther harsh beating for it. Perhaps they deserve it, and perhaps it's still 'he's not Steve' working too. I have everything running on Mavericks now, and it's working like it always did. Not having the plethora of issues that users have had with going from Windows 7 to Windows 8 is something I am VERY thankful for...
 
I have this problem on my iPhone 5 also. I've had it replaced multiple times for this issue and the camera, I'm on my 5th replacement. While you can restore it and set it up as a new phone it still isn't the fix. Maybe it has something to do with what is coming from your computer when syncing. I've never used my phones a lot for music but have recently and whenever I add more music the battery dies sooner. Seems like a weird correlation, but its the only thing that's changing. When I have no music on my phone it can usually go to 0% battery life. I've given up on replacing them.
 
I'm troubleshooting a similar problem on my wife's iPhone 5 but hers was shutting down between 30-50%. Never had this issue on iOS 6. So here's what I did.

1. Performed computer backup.
2. Tried to copy all the pictures from phone to computer but noticed that folders would not copy. Seen a bunch of computer icons (at least 40 to 50 in one folder) so I decided to just manually pick all the pictures. :confused:
3. Performed DFU restore to 7.04.
4. Performed restore from computer.
5. Wife complained again that phone turned off at 40% when trying to use camera (but has happened before in other apps). :mad:
6. Did a iCloud backup with picture backup unselected.
7. Wife told me that she has new pictures that she wanted me to save but noticed this time that a good number of pictures were corrupt. :confused:
8. Performed another DFU restore to 7.04.
9. Kept the phone stock until my wife started complaining about her notes. Did iCloud restore of contacts and notes.
10. So far so good. Informed my wife to not charge the phone and use it normally. I ran battery down and got the 10% warning. Battery lasted at least 30 more minutes while watching youtube video and phone finally died (which I wanted). In total the battery lasted for almost 24 hours. :D

I'm currently recharging the battery but I may chalk this up to corrupted data that was part of the original computer restore. Especially after seeing a number of bad pictures in the iPhone's folder when viewing from the computer. My wife is a pictureholic and she had over 2.3gigs of pictures on that phone since I got it on release day last year and I know that some of the music copied over was not playing correctly as well.
Too early to tell but so far so good. I will report back with good or bad news. Giving it a week to really know for sure. Otherwise I'm going to replace the battery.
 
rockymtn2 said:
I have this problem on my iPhone 5 also. I've had it replaced multiple times for this issue and the camera, I'm on my 5th replacement. While you can restore it and set it up as a new phone it still isn't the fix. Maybe it has something to do with what is coming from your computer when syncing. I've never used my phones a lot for music but have recently and whenever I add more music the battery dies sooner. Seems like a weird correlation, but its the only thing that's changing. When I have no music on my phone it can usually go to 0% battery life. I've given up on replacing them.
Click to expand...

Try resetting your phone completely and use it as a brand new phone. Don't sync any of your old files, pictures, music or videos and see what happens. If you see my post right below yours there may have been some type of corruption in the data that was going back to the phone. This solution really sucks because you would figure that during the restore back to the phone it would catch the offending file.
 
cdmoore74 said:
Try resetting your phone completely and use it as a brand new phone. Don't sync any of your old files, pictures, music or videos and see what happens. If you see my post right below yours there may have been some type of corruption in the data that was going back to the phone. This solution really sucks because you would figure that during the restore back to the phone it would catch the offending file.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I've tried this many times and it still happens. Even went to the Apple store again last night and the guy said when the battery is at 27% its really at 5% and the software is just confused. So the battery is draining faster than the speed it already is?? The restore didn't help and I didn't load anything on my phone, even kept off the music today to see if it would go down to 0%. The employee said this is a known issue but I will still have to pay for a replacement battery or phone myself.
 
Same problem here, I have applecare+ so I'm hoping something can be done about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back