iPhone 6s Plus dies in cold weather?Normal behavior or hardware issue?

[Goatllama]

"Use iOS devices where the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause the device to change its behavior to regulate its temperature. Using an iOS device in very cold conditions outside of its operating range may temporarily shorten battery life and could cause the device to turn off. Battery life will return to normal when the device is brought back to higher ambient temperatures."
( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201678 )

 

[DribbleCastle]

Just an update to my earlier post. The shutting down in the cold continued to happen several more times. A total of 10 or more times. As I mentioned earlier my phone was shutting down in 40F temps while only outside for 20 minutes or so.

I finally made a trip to the Apple Store and they replaced my phone. Not because they thought it was a problem. In fact, I was told that the phone shutting down in the cold weather was within normal use. Pretty broad language. They ran diagnostics which didn't show any temperature flags triggered (I believe it only triggers on high temps) and the battery was in good condition. Unsurprising for a phone only 4 months old.

Like I said, in the end they replaced my phone for basically customer service reasons. I didn't have to push hard at all. I just made my argument that I wouldn't make this trip to the store if it wasn't a serious problem and that I had lost trust in that particular phones hardware. My service documentation that I signed stated that this was a one time replacement for this issue and the phone would not again replaced for the same problem.

That was earlier this week and I haven't been out for any long span of time yet. Im in Park City, Utah now for a skiing trip so I'll find out tomorrow for sure.

 

[Tinmania]

It does seem like your iPhone was a little "overly sensitive" to cold. I suspect the replacement won't shut down as much, and never in 40F temps.



Mike

 

[MrJM]

This happened to me last night. I ride a motorbike and it was in a pocket in my jacket. It was around 1 degree and windy so even colder when riding. Got home and my phone was really cold and turned itself off when I tried to use it. Was at 40% battery too!

 

[SnowDX]

My daughter's and my husband's phones shut off on them yesterday while skiing. One at 20% and the other at 34%. It was -8C (17.5F) and they had been out for a couple hours so we weren't shocked by it; especially since my daughter kept pulling hers out for pics and video. Mine stayed happy the whole time as my new jacket has a great inner mesh pocket that has my body heat keeping it warm and it's insulated to the outside. My daughter's jacket has the standard inner pocket where the insulation is between your device and your body and the only thing protecting the device from the outdoor is the waterproof/windproof shell of the jacket.

 

[bruinsrme]

Apple says
Operating ambient temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)

Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)

When I was snow blowing while it was around 2 degrees I had an ipod touch in my parka pocket.
It shut off.

 

[HEK]

Wind

This happened to me last night. I ride a motorbike and it was in a pocket in my jacket. It was around 1 degree and windy so even colder when riding. Got home and my phone was really cold and turned itself off when I tried to use it. Was at 40% battery too!

Wind chill only effects heat producing surfaces like a body. Inadimate objects will cool down faster but never go below the ambient teperature. One degree. is one degree to the phone.

 

[DribbleCastle]

Well it was really nice day of skiing with 45F temps and sun. Had my phone in an inner pocket playing music most of the day. No shutdowns when the phone was decently cold to the touch. Similar feel to when it had shutdown in the past.

So far, so good. I'll post again if this new phone happens to shutdown in anything above 32F temps.

 

[MrJM]

Wind

Wind chill only effects heat producing surfaces like a body. Inadimate objects will cool down faster but never go below the ambient teperature. One degree. is one degree to the phone.

Perhaps it was colder then! Who knows!

 

[HEK]

Perhaps it was colder then! Who knows!

Only point I was making is windchill does not make it colder. It removes heat more rapidly getting to the ambient temp faster.

 

[goobot]

Happened to me at 20F. It sucked because I was using it for navigation and it just randomly shut off when I still had around 20%. It was a 6S and has never happened to me with any other generation iPhone.

 

[cableguy84]

This happened to me when my 6s plus was cold

 

[fenderbass146]

Sorry. Reviving an old thread but we have had some unusually cold days with some snow in Chicagoland. I'm getting pretty pissed at my 6s. This winter I went snowmobiling up in the UP (Upper Peninsul of Michigan) which has some unbelievable scenery. I wanted to take some pictures of Lake Superior and the mountains in the area. I always kept my phone in an inside pocket. As soon as I took my phone out an opened the camera the POS would shut off. Now some background. It wasn't that cold. Maybe I'm the upper 20's and it was an inside chest pocket behind the windshield for the most part and obviously I wasn't cold so it couldn't have been below 60 inside my jacket. Secondly I have had previous iPhones in much colder weather without issues.

Well i was pretty pissed but just thought it must be colder then I thought and just dealed with it. Well yesterday I was out walking along Lake Michigan checking out the crazy huge waves and wanted to take a picture and the same **** happened. It wasn't that cold. Maybe mid 30's. That's absoulte ********. I'm bringing my phone to apple because it shouldn't happen in relatively normal conditions. In the Midwest working outside in the 30's is part of everyday life half the year and shouldn't happen.

 

[MrHollywood]

I

I've had my iPhone 6s Plus for 4 months now and I must say it's an amazing device.Now,lately I've been experiencing a really weird issue with it.I live in a country where the weather conditions are as bad as in Canada right now if not worse meaning it's very cold over here.The temperature tends to drop 20 degrees subzero over here.Anyway,today my phone died on 17% under the following weather conditions: -5 degrees Celsius/wind nm 9mph feels like -12 degrees.Is this normal behavior or could there be some sort of a hardware issue here?Is anyone familiar with this?Help pls!

got my phone and a month or 2 month later when it got colder and temp dropped to around 5 - 6 deg celcius, my phone would shut off at 30% to 80% battery life. Apple phone support did tests on phone and battery and said everything is fine. Told me to reset it, reinstall it. Which I did. Same happened. I then got a USB battery charging case and the phone started working as it should. I figured I would just leave it like that until I book a few days off work to sort it. That day never came and months later summer came. I took the USB battery case off as the bulky case makes the iPhone look crap, Phone worked fine. Now it's coming to winter again the same thing is happening. It is only starting to reach below 10 degrees and it's switching off. So I will be going to phone Apple first chance I get. I work nights so it's not really something I can easily do. None of my other iPhones did this including iPhone 6. My girlfriends phone 6s doesn't do it, so I will give them a chance to resolve it as when it comes to selling this phone. I don't want to have to list it as faulty. And apples trade in deal for the iPhone 7 is rubbish. So waiting til next year now to get one. And if this is normal behaviour then I will be upgrading back to an iPhone 6.

 

[stooovie]

Mine dies repeatedly at 0-5 celsius, with roughly 50 % battery. And it's NOT one of those eligible for battery replacement. Not good.

 

[coolfactor]

Mine dies repeatedly at 0-5 celsius, with roughly 50 % battery. And it's NOT one of those eligible for battery replacement. Not good.

Yup, same here, my girlfriend's 6s keeps shutting off when it gets cold. We have outside temperatures ranging between -12C and -25C right now, so very cold, and definitely below the recommended operating temperatures specified by Apple.

My iPhone SE has not shut off yet, but it has a thicker case.

 

[DJLAXL]

Wife's 6S Plus does the same in the cold. Dies anywhere from 80%-20% in the cold here in Utah. Glad to see its not just her phone.

 

[kdarling]

Somewhat surprised by this though, as I come from a note 3 and that device was working fine during far more extreme weather (regularly at the beach in the evenings with my dog in the winter when it would be freezing cold with a semi tornado blowing) than what caused my iphone to act up yesterday.

Past tests have shown that Samsung phones often work down to -20F.

Having an OLED display is also an advantage over LCD in the cold.

Perhaps it's a design location thing. Korea has both horrible cold and heat, whereas California is much more moderate.

 

[JackieInCo]

I have owned a 6S and a 6S+ for a year now. I have always had one or the other with me and lately it's the 6S because it's small and easy to make a call with out in the cold. Last week, our temps in my part of Colorado were down near 5 to 0. Never had my 6S or 6S+ shut down this winter or last.

I usually bring my S7 Edge with me also and just use the 6S to make calls on as I said above when I am outside for my ob because of it's size.

 

[Basic75]

Couple weeks ago i was walking outside and there were only -1C and my phone went off. I tried to open it but it shows me that the battery was empty. I thought it was empty and I went home and started to charge it, the battery shows me 40% left. 6s+ couldnt even handle -1C! First time something like this happened to me with a smartphone. I have to say but been using my phone when there is around -10-15C nowadays.. But that -1C was like "hey cmon!? Are you serious?"

Same here! My old 4S used to handle that much better.

 

[flappah]

Wife's 6S Plus does the same in the cold. Dies anywhere from 80%-20% in the cold here in Utah. Glad to see its not just her phone.

Happened to me yesterday. Had the 6s-plus on one of those belt clips and had my coat over it. I was just walking for like half an hour in say 1C temperatures. All of a sudden it stopped playing music and I'd noticed it had shut down. Thinking not much of it I walked home and put the phone on the charger only to notice, when it came back on, it had 52% battery charge left. And that was while when I put on the charger it showed the low battery warning. Seems like the 6s'es can't stand temperatures around the 0C either.

This morning I was walking to work again (again the same half an hour walk) and it was -4C outside I'd noticed the battery had dropped from 100% to 82% when I got to work.