iPhone plugged in all night...91% battery. Reset, 93%. Plug in again, 97%.

[HXGuy]

What's the deal with the battery on the 4S?

I had the phone plugged into a wall outlet all night (was at 25% prior to going to bed) and I woke up to find it only 91% full. I thought maybe it wasn't showing accurate so I restarted the phone and now it showed 93%. Plugged it back in for about 2 minutes and it jumped to 97%.

What's going on Apple? Is it really not charging correctly or is it just not displaying the charge correctly?

 

[VandyChem2009]

You need to let your battery break in. If it is still doing that after a month or so then there might be something wrong with the battery, but for now I wouldn't worry about it because the battery is brand new.

 

[RafaelT]

What's the deal with the battery on the 4S?

I had the phone plugged into a wall outlet all night (was at 25% prior to going to bed) and I woke up to find it only 91% full. I thought maybe it wasn't showing accurate so I restarted the phone and now it showed 93%. Plugged it back in for about 2 minutes and it jumped to 97%.

What's going on Apple? Is it really not charging correctly or is it just not displaying the charge correctly?

You need to let it drain completely, until it shuts itself off. Then charge it and keep letting it charge for two hours after it reaches 100%.

If you do that a couple times and it is not fixed take it to the Apple store.

 

[Namji]

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13720583#post13720583

Macbooks do this exact thing... it never charges fully to 100% unless you re-calibrate the battery.
However, my iphone 4 never did this. It is probably with the iphone 4S only..

Below is a image of a macbook screen.

 

[gatd]

reset without the power lead plugged in.

 

[tulsa40]

And a follow up question: Should I (we all) wait for a software fix or return our iPhones for a replacement?

If I knew that Apple was coming out with an iOS update to solve the not-fully-charging problem, I'd feel better and be willing to wait. Is this a solvable software problem or a hardware problem that necessitates getting a new iPhone 4S?

What's the deal with the battery on the 4S?

I had the phone plugged into a wall outlet all night (was at 25% prior to going to bed) and I woke up to find it only 91% full. I thought maybe it wasn't showing accurate so I restarted the phone and now it showed 93%. Plugged it back in for about 2 minutes and it jumped to 97%.

What's going on Apple? Is it really not charging correctly or is it just not displaying the charge correctly?

 

[RafaelT]

And a follow up question: Should I (we all) wait for a software fix or return our iPhones for a replacement?

If I knew that Apple was coming out with an iOS update to solve the not-fully-charging problem, I'd feel better and be willing to wait. Is this a solvable software problem or a hardware problem that necessitates getting a new iPhone 4S?

Have you tried my suggestion above? If yes, and it still does not work correctly then I would contact Apple.

 

[tulsa40]

I haven't tried a full discharge yet. (Others have suggested setting up my iPhone as a new phone.)

Prior to letting your iPhone completely discharge were you having just rapid battery consumption or were you also having the not-fully-charging problem? The not-fully-charging problem seems to be a separate problem that may or may not be related to the iPhone 4S's fast battery usage. (The not-fully-charging problem seems to be a case of the iPhone reaching 100%, then either discharging or no longer charging.)

Have you tried my suggestion above? If yes, and it still does not work correctly then I would contact Apple.

<<You need to let it drain completely, until it shuts itself off. Then charge it and keep letting it charge for two hours after it reaches 100%.

If you do that a couple times and it is not fixed take it to the Apple store.>>

 

[RafaelT]

I haven't tried a full discharge yet. (Others have suggested setting up my iPhone as a new phone.)

Prior to letting your iPhone completely discharge were you having just rapid battery consumption or were you also having the not-fully-charging problem? The not-fully-charging problem seems to be a separate problem that may or may not be related to the iPhone 4S's fast battery usage. (The not-fully-charging problem seems to be a case of the iPhone reaching 100%, then either discharging or no longer charging.)




<<You need to let it drain completely, until it shuts itself off. Then charge it and keep letting it charge for two hours after it reaches 100%.

If you do that a couple times and it is not fixed take it to the Apple store.>>

I personally have not had the issue. My advice is a fix (that often works) that applies to all Apple products that have batteries. Laptops or iOS devices.

And yes, the rapid discharge and not fully charging issues are two separate things.

 

[DravenGSX]

If you haven't even tried the suggestions posted here and aren't willing to do so, then you should probably return your phone and enjoy the battery life you get out of other smart phones /sarcasm.

I have a better solution though - in the Settings app, turn off the battery percentage. Then use your phone without worrying about the battery and enjoy.

 

[curitibagarrett]

If you haven't even tried the suggestions posted here and aren't willing to do so, then you should probably return your phone and enjoy the battery life you get out of other smart phones /sarcasm.

I have a better solution though - in the Settings app, turn off the battery percentage. Then use your phone without worrying about the battery and enjoy.

DING DING DING WINNER chicken dinner

 

[tulsa40]

I've tried numerous fixes: Turing off wifi sync, turning off location based services, restoring network settings, hard resetting my iPhone 4S, plugging the phone into the charger that came from Apple, plugging my iPhone into my PC, turning off wifi, turning off cellular data, and others.

The problem of the phone either not reaching 100 percent charge or reaching a 100 percent charge and this discharging seems to be a separate problem from the battery life problem. It may not be as widespread as the poor battery life issue, but it is certainly pervasive.

What I'm looking for is a solution from somebody who' has solved the specific problem of the iPhone 4S not reaching or sustaining a 100% charge. Perhaps I missed that: Has anyone solved this particular problem?

Somebody posted that I should just wait and my iPhone 4S' battery would "calibrate." It hasn't "calibrated," and the problem persists.

Restoring my iPhone 4S is a drastic thing to try if the solution is only based on guesswork. Replacing my iPhone 4S is also something I want to avoid, which I why I'm looking for solution that's based on actual results, first.

If you haven't even tried the suggestions posted here and aren't willing to do so, then you should probably return your phone and enjoy the battery life you get out of other smart phones /sarcasm.

I have a better solution though - in the Settings app, turn off the battery percentage. Then use your phone without worrying about the battery and enjoy.

 

[RafaelT]

I've tried numerous fixes: Turing off wifi sync, turning off location based services, restoring network settings, hard resetting my iPhone 4S, plugging the phone into the charger that came from Apple, plugging my iPhone into my PC, turning off wifi, turning off cellular data, and others.

The problem of the phone either not reaching 100 percent charge or reaching a 100 percent charge and this discharging seems to be a separate problem from the battery life problem. It may not be as widespread as the poor battery life issue, but it is certainly pervasive.

What I'm looking for is a solution from somebody who' has solved the specific problem of the iPhone 4S not reaching or sustaining a 100% charge. Perhaps I missed that: Has anyone solved this particular problem?

Somebody posted that I should just wait and my iPhone 4S' battery would "calibrate." It hasn't "calibrated," and the problem persists.

Restoring my iPhone 4S is a drastic thing to try if the solution is only based on guesswork. Replacing my iPhone 4S is also something I want to avoid, which I why I'm looking for solution that's based on actual results, first.

You have tried a bunch of fixes that would really have nothing to do with fixing your issue and you don't want to try some of the more drastic ones, which is understandable.

But you have not tried the suggestion I already gave you that fixes this issue about 95% of the time, that is part of the reason people are giving you a hard time. You might want to try that and then come back.

"You need to let it drain completely, until it shuts itself off. Then charge it and keep letting it charge for two hours after it reaches 100%. "

That is the FIRST step that should be tried for the issue that you are describing.

 

[iceterminal]

Too many people are fixated upon this "number" for their battery. The number isn't exact and will fluctuate to varying degrees.
The easiest fix is to merely turn off the battery percentage. If you can break yourself of this OCD behavior, you'll soon find out that your battery is lasting longer than you originally thought.

Consider it in the name of science. Give it a shot.

 

[room237]

This happened to me the first time I backed up to iCloud, and once more when I had a large backup.

I think what happens is that as you may know, as the battery gets charged it's designed to slow down to trickle charge mode. Now, if your phone is still working on backing up (or doing something else in the background) it may actually deplete the battery faster than the trickle charge. The battery seems to not come OFF of trickle charge and back into normal charge mode unless the charge is significantly lower, perhaps 80%, 85%.. So your battery may never reach full 100% if it is doing something in the background.

That's my theory.

This also happened to me a while ago when there was some app that crashed in the background and would constantly try to restart itself. That's how the genius bar described it. I would also get significant battery drain when not charging because this app would keep crashing, restarting, crashing. Had no idea which app it was. The only thing that fixed this problem was a hard restore.