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iPhone 6s turning off at 10-20%

A

asamoa6150

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2015
9
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For the last couple of days my iPhone 6s has been shutting off at fairly high percentages (14% yesterday, 18% today). When I try to turn it back on, sometimes it will give me the low battery symbol, but other times it will turn back on. However, even if it does, it shuts off again very quickly.

Even before this started happening, I suspected something might be wrong with the battery because I would only average about 6 hours of battery life with normal usage, while a lot of people on this forum seem to be getting 7-8 hours. Additionally, I've had some weird problems with charging. Sometimes my phone would seem to be charging very slowly, so I would reset the phone and when it turned back on, it would be at a higher percentage than before (around 10% more). There doesn't seem to be any major problem with the discharging rate though.

Just a bit of background in case it might be relevant: When I first got my 6s, I restored from a backup of my old iPhone, but was encountering a bug with Siri so I restored as new. Even with this restore, like I mentioned before, my battery life has been somewhat suspect. Do you guys think that I have a problem with the battery, or should I just restore as new again? I'm somewhat reluctant because I have some saved game data that I don't want to lose, but if this is just a firmware glitch, I'll have to do it.
 
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Exact same problem here. Phone was shutting down at 18%. Tried restoring, adding apps back one by one. Didn't matter. Apple replaced the phone. A day later, same thing. This time I was able to video what was happening. Brought the new phone back, showed the video, and they gave me another new one. This third one is perfect. No issues. All three phones were 128 GB. All three were running 9.2.1. The first two had Samsung A9 chips. The third one has a TSMC A9 chip. I don't know if that mattered.

asamoa6150 said:
For the last couple of days my iPhone 6s has been shutting off at fairly high percentages (14% yesterday, 18% today). When I try to turn it back on, sometimes it will give me the low battery symbol, but other times it will turn back on. However, even if it does, it shuts off again very quickly.

Even before this started happening, I suspected something might be wrong with the battery because I would only average about 6 hours of battery life with normal usage, while a lot of people on this forum seem to be getting 7-8 hours. Additionally, I've had some weird problems with charging. Sometimes my phone would seem to be charging very slowly, so I would reset the phone and when it turned back on, it would be at a higher percentage than before (around 10% more). There doesn't seem to be any major problem with the discharging rate though.

Just a bit of background in case it might be relevant: When I first got my 6s, I restored from a backup of my old iPhone, but was encountering a bug with Siri so I restored as new. Even with this restore, like I mentioned before, my battery life has been somewhat suspect. Do you guys think that I have a problem with the battery, or should I just restore as new again? I'm somewhat reluctant because I have some saved game data that I don't want to lose, but if this is just a firmware glitch, I'll have to do it.
Click to expand...
 
for you guys who are having these kinds of problems, do the phones usually die when you are outdoors?

i have very similar issues with my 6s and i've noticed that the phone turning off typically happens when the phone is exposed to the cold outside for an extended period of time. i know the 6s has a recommended operating range of above 32 degrees, but i have had this issue even when the temperature is around 40 degrees.

what i'm noticing is that once the phone is exposed to the cold for around 10-15 minutes, the phone will sometimes die out of nowhere (I've seen with battery life anywhere from 10% to 50%) and when i try to turn it on, it shows the battery as empty. but...as soon as i plug the phone back in, the battery will show up with percentage that the battery died at. and the issue is very frequent especially during the winter. any given week, i'd say the phone will die prematurely 3 times usually when i'm outside going from work. i have had iPhones since iPhone 3G and i've never had batteries this sensitive to cold.

Gonna check out the Genius Bar tomorrow and see what they can do.
 
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Location and temp made no difference for me.

DOUGHNUT said:
for you guys who are having these kinds of problems, do the phones usually die when you are outdoors?

i have very similar issues with my 6s and i've noticed that the phone turning off typically happens when the phone is exposed to the cold outside for an extended period of time. i know the 6s has a recommended operating range of above 32 degrees, but i have had this issue even when the temperature is around 40 degrees.

what i'm noticing is that once the phone is exposed to the cold for around 10-15 minutes, the phone will sometimes die out of nowhere (I've seen with battery life anywhere from 10% to 50%) and when i try to turn it on, it shows the battery as empty. but...as soon as i plug the phone back in, the battery will show up with percentage that the battery died at. and the issue is very frequent especially during the winter. any given week, i'd say the phone will die prematurely 3 times usually when i'm outside going from work. i have had iPhones since iPhone 3G and i've never had batteries this sensitive to cold.

Gonna check out the Genius Bar tomorrow and see what they can do.
Click to expand...
 
Hello everyone,
The reason why your iphone is turning off especially in cold envoiroment is caused by battery losing its performance. I had the same issue with my 4s in the past, and the highest % of battery dying in my hands was 64! So i went to 3rd party service and they replaced the new battery which has completely solved the problem.
Just don't let your phone work when it's cold outside or freezing.
 
It shut off at 15% today. I plugged it in and the battery meter appeared as 7%. Hope they figure this all out soon!

ColdnFrosty said:
Exact same problem here. Phone was shutting down at 18%. Tried restoring, adding apps back one by one. Didn't matter. Apple replaced the phone. A day later, same thing. This time I was able to video what was happening. Brought the new phone back, showed the video, and they gave me another new one. This third one is perfect. No issues. All three phones were 128 GB. All three were running 9.2.1. The first two had Samsung A9 chips. The third one has a TSMC A9 chip. I don't know if that mattered.
Click to expand...
 
Same issues with my wife's phones. We both got iPhone 6s 64gb on lunch day; however, her ended up being with Samsung chipset while mine is TSMC.
We had troubleshoot this for the last two months - different restores, multiple apple chat sessions, few setup as new and nothing helped. The phone would shut off on average once a week at mostly 20-50% battery left.

Last weekend, we went to a local Apple store and requested a fix. The genius who took care of us, at first was adamant that there is nothing wrong with the phone. Her started talking to us like we were idiots or total computer illiterates. I had explain to him that I had 20+ IT background and just half the stuff he told us was a total bull crap. I also had to explain to him that those health check apps are not always %100 correct and cant be taken for granted in every single situation.

At the end, he had consulted with a senior guy and gave us a new new phone. It is too early to say if the issue is resolved, but the positive is that her phone had TSMC chipset instead of Samsung.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Excuse me. The indicator is only a guide and does not tell the exact amount of power left in your battery but I "assume" you did not know that.
Click to expand...
My iPhone 6S has died with between 10%-50% battery showing on the display. Not sure if I should need a degree in electrical engineering to determine how much time my phone has before dying. I've never had a problem with any of the other iPhones I have had.
 
dave420 said:
My iPhone 6S has died with between 10%-50% battery showing on the display. Not sure if I should need a degree in electrical engineering to determine how much time my phone has before dying. I've never had a problem with any of the other iPhones I have had.
Click to expand...

There have been multiple threads on the inaccuracy of the battery meter, most think it is a bug that will be fixed in an update. My 6S+ has not had this problem but many others have reported similar issues.

No degree required but if you search in this forum you will see this is a common complaint right now. If you have tested your battery and it comes up good I would say it is just a bug hopefully fixed in the next update.
 
posguy99 said:
<sigh> The battery has a bad cell. This is not rocket science, it should be replaced.
Click to expand...

Tell that to the guys at the genius bar. They say the battery is fine.
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Newtons Apple said:
Excuse me. The indicator is only a guide and does not tell the exact amount of power left in your battery but I "assume" you did not know that.
Click to expand...

What I do know is that on my iPad, and all previous versions of the iPhone that I've had (including the 6), the battery indicator would go to 1% before the device would shut down. But as you mentioned elsewhere, hopefully it is a code issue that can be corrected in 9.2.2 or 9.3.
 
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ColdnFrosty said:
It shut off at 15% today. I plugged it in and the battery meter appeared as 7%. Hope they figure this all out soon!
Click to expand...

Had the same problem multiple times on my 6S. Had no problems in 2015, this started some time in January. Have reported this bug to Apple and attached powerlogs.
 
When I don't charge my phone overnight, I'll check it in the morning as usual. Even though it has like 20% battery, it'll suddenly turn off as if it were low on battery.

Then, I'll try and turn it on and it gives me the "charge your phone" image telling me to insert my lightning cord.

So I do that and then it turns on and just now it turns on telling me I have 34% battery. Why did it even turn off to begin with?
 
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Having this issue with my 6S as well (just posted a separate thread before finding this one)

Guess I'll take it to the Apple store and see if they can do anything...
 
It sounds like a battery calibration issue. Your phone shouldn't be shutting off st 20% unless that 20% is actually physically much lower (i.e. The OS is estimating a much higher actual charge than is on it and for some reason it is starting st 20%).

Does it exhibit this every single time? I'd recommend trying to fully drain it but it seems you've done that to the best of your ability.
 
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For the last 2 days my iPhone 6s has shut down following a 10% battery warning when I selected the Low Power Mode option. I powered it back up on the charger, the battery meter showed 14%. I took it off the charger, turned off Low Power Mode and ran it back down to the 10% warning. This time I didn't enable the Low Power Mode and it didn't shut down immediately, but did after a few minutes. In the past (i.e. before the 9.3.4 iOS update) at the 10% warning I could usually enable low power mode and leave the screen off and it would go for a couple of hours.
 
Hi,

My wife is experiencing abrupt shutdowns at 40-50% battery on her 6S/128, iOS 9.3.4. I'm poking around trying to see what this could be about but it mostly seems to be revealing hardware replacements, no other remedies. The only way to revive it is to plug it into a charger and that action immediately shows the battery level that it shut down at.

Now that iOS 10 is out, she does not have the option of updating to 9.3.5 on her phone at least, is there a way to do it via iTunes and is it even worth trying? Battery life on iOS 10 is not exactly platinum on the 6S either at the moment so I am not sure what the next move is.

Today it went completely black at 50% when using Siri. When we got home and plugged it back in, the battery showed 50%.

The phone is still under warranty (10/8), but the closest Apple store is over 200 miles away so I would like to figure it out on our side if we can.
 
Had same issue as OP

iPhone would have 30% and then automatically turn off. Press the on/off button, says need to plug in. I hard reset and it comes back on, I put my passcode in and it is on for one sec before it closes. It's only when I plug it in, that it comes back OK but it still has 30% life.

I tolerate this for a few months but then ran into the issue of backing up the phone onto iCloud. Can't do it. Went into the Apple Store. Turns out the software is corrupt and I had to do a manual factory reset or swap it. I couldn't back up the phone though because they said that even if I did an iTunes, it would carry over the corrupt software. I'm guessing that's why I couldn't backup, because they (the system) detected the funny software

Hth
 
rainafterthesun said:
Had same issue as OP

iPhone would have 30% and then automatically turn off. Press the on/off button, says need to plug in. I hard reset and it comes back on, I put my passcode in and it is on for one sec before it closes. It's only when I plug it in, that it comes back OK but it still has 30% life.

I tolerate this for a few months but then ran into the issue of backing up the phone onto iCloud. Can't do it. Went into the Apple Store. Turns out the software is corrupt and I had to do a manual factory reset or swap it. I couldn't back up the phone though because they said that even if I did an iTunes, it would carry over the corrupt software. I'm guessing that's why I couldn't backup, because they (the system) detected the funny software

Hth
Click to expand...

Thanks, guess I better use Image Capture and all my 3rd party iphone apps to pull as much data as I can and then gnaw away at it.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Know fault. When the battery get that low, it will product unpredictable results. Many threads on this.

Just plug it in before you go to bed and it will last the day.
Click to expand...

Not true. Both my wife and I plug in our phones at night and unplug in the morning. it will barely make it to lunch before having to be plugged in to prevent dying. Both apple and Verizon have run diagnostics on the phone and say the battery is fine. I have performed a factory reset on both, via iTunes, and not OTA, and it still dies quickly. This is without apps running in the background, as that was said to be the culprit. It seems to be a software issue, not hardware, that's assuming that Apple and Verizon are not lying about the battery integrity. You sure are condescending to people who are simply trying to find an answer to a question... There's no reason to me rude to people who are seeking information. You make snide remarks about the temperature, when you do not actually answer the question. "Colder temps will reduce the battery performance, no mystery" is an ignorant statement. The temp question is relative to what would be considered normal temp for someone. If you live in south FL, "colder" temps might actually cause the batter to work better, relative to "colder temps" for someone in Maine. Of course, this is easy to do when being a keyboard warrior hiding behind a screen. I hope apple finds a fix to this bug quickly, or they will lose even more market share to the competition. I also hope folks find answers to their questions here, and not just smart remarks from people pretending to know what they are talking about.
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rainafterthesun said:
Had same issue as OP

iPhone would have 30% and then automatically turn off. Press the on/off button, says need to plug in. I hard reset and it comes back on, I put my passcode in and it is on for one sec before it closes. It's only when I plug it in, that it comes back OK but it still has 30% life.

I tolerate this for a few months but then ran into the issue of backing up the phone onto iCloud. Can't do it. Went into the Apple Store. Turns out the software is corrupt and I had to do a manual factory reset or swap it. I couldn't back up the phone though because they said that even if I did an iTunes, it would carry over the corrupt software. I'm guessing that's why I couldn't backup, because they (the system) detected the funny software

Hth
Click to expand...

If you couldn't use iTunes to perform a backup prior to reset/reformat, without transferring the corrupt software, what was their proposed resolution? We're experiencing similar issues, though not as bad as 30% battery (ours is around 15%)... I need to backup content, and perform a full reset/reformat before I drive almost 2 hours to the nearest Apple store. I appreciate your time and response in advance.
 
I recently (August) had my iPhone 6s replaced for this very reason. Beginning in February, it would sometimes shutdown anywhere south of 25%. Powering up would initially show it needed to be charged. If I rebooted again it would power up and show a different battery percentage, but when I started to using it, it would shutdown immediately. When I placed it on a charger, sometimes it would boot-loop many times before powering up. And this got worse...more frequent and at a higher percentage. I updated to each iOS release, but this made no difference.

I visited the Apple Genius Bar. They ran diagnostics and said the battery was fine. They insisted I restore as new to see if it cleared the problem and to get fresh history. I did this and within a week it started happening again...anywhere south of 48%. Back to the Genius Bar where diagnostics still showed no problem with the battery! However, they could see very erratic battery behavior in the history logs (graphs), and replaced the iPhone. New (refurb'd) 6s has been rock solid.
 
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