iPhone SE battery drains rapidly

[TomFromAndroid]

I've had an iPhone SE for just over a year. Under Settings>Battery it shows battery health "Good" and 100% charge available. I can charge it to 100% in the usual time, about an hour, but two hours later it drops down to about 90%. A couple of hours later it will be down to 70 or so. After about 8 hours it's in the 30% range -- and I'm not even using the phone. No apps, no voice or text usage. Plus I have Bluetooth, location and all apps shutdown or disabled and the most recent OS update.

Last night, instead of leaving it in Sleep mode I powered it down completely. It had 53% charge before I did so, and when I turned it on in the morning it was showing only 31%.

Any ideas what's going on? Am I in need of a battery replacement already?

 

[chscag]

Did you buy the SE new from Apple or was it sold by someone else? It appears the battery in your SE needs to be replaced. Apple stores are currently closed but when they open, a new battery will cost $49 (out of warranty).

 

[Juicy Box]

I had similar issues that were never fixed, but the SE was eventually replaced under AC+.

The replacement SE has great battery life until I recently purchased an AWS3, not it kind of sucks.

For your iPhone, I think it might be the power management unit issue, as I also had similar issues with my older iPhone 6s Plus, and it ended up being the PMU.
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It appears the battery in your SE needs to be replaced

I am not saying you are wrong, but am curious why you would think the battery needs replacing, as the stated the battery health is at 100% capacity?

 

[TomFromAndroid]

Did you buy the SE new from Apple or was it sold by someone else? It appears the battery in your SE needs to be replaced. Apple stores are currently closed but when they open, a new battery will cost $49 (out of warranty).

This is a Tracfone iPhone, purchased through their website about a year ago. Yes...I know...a cheap, pay-as-you-go carrier, so what do I expect? It crossed my mind that maybe they were selling off a lot of old inventory since Apple had discontinued this generation of SE well before that. But I didn't think Lithium-ion batteries had shelf life issues, plus the thing performed beautifully right out of the box, and for most of last year. This is only a recent problem. And my sister has the same phone and reports no problems.
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I had similar issues that were never fixed, but the SE was eventually replaced under AC+.

The replacement SE has great battery life until Inpurcgased an AWS3, not it kind of sucks.

For your iPhone, I think it might be the power management unit issue, as I also had similar issues with my older iPhone 6s Plus, and it ended up being the PMU.
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I am not saying you are wrong, but am curious why you would think the battery needs replacing, as the stated the battery health is at 100% capacity?

That's what I don't get. It charges right up in the usual time and always shows 100% when I take it off charge, and I have the Optimization enabled. Plus, the rate at which it discharges is uneven: Sometimes it will remain quite steady for hours, followed by a massive 30% drop in just two hours of sitting idle, unused -- no display or apps in use, and no texts or calls.

 

[Juicy Box]

and I have the Optimization enabled.

Turn this off!

I bet you will see a difference in battery life right away.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

Turn this off!

I bet you will see a difference in battery life right away.

I tried that, but there doesn't seem to be much difference. And I don't understand that featur: If it improves your battery life, which is what they claim -- why would you ever want to turn it off?

 

[Juicy Box]

And I don't understand that featur: If it improves your battery life, which is what they claim -- why would you ever want to turn it off?

It doesn't improve battery life, it could actually do the opposite in the short-term.

Lithium Ion batteries degrade over time, but the rate at which they degrade increase at high and low % of charge. The ideal charge range to keep the battery at is about 30% to 70% of the capacity. As the battery degrades, the maximum capacity of the battery is reduced.

The purpose of the 'Optimize Battery Charging' is to reduces the amount of long-term wear on the battery by learning ones' charging habits in an attempt to only charge up to 80% and not to go all the way to 100%.

I don't like the feature because it could limit how long a single charge can last. While I do not use my phone that often, there might be a particular day that I am on my phone longer than usual. I would much rather have the ability to a keep a longer charge than to have my iPhone's battery's capacity limited to 80%.

There has also been many reports that the feature is very buggy and doesn't always work.

 

[chscag]

Like the OP stated, it's a TracFone iPhone SE. Who knows how long it was on the shelf or sitting in their inventory? Li-Ion batteries degrade over time even when not used so it certainly would not be out of line to assume the battery might need to be replaced. What he described can be attributed to a battery that is worn. I have no idea what kind of warranty that TracFone gives with the phones they sell, but it's very likely his phone is out of warranty.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

I have no idea what kind of warranty that TracFone gives with the phones they sell, but it's very likely his phone is out of warranty.

You're right. It's just a couple of months out of warranty. :-(

 

[BugeyeSTI]

If your handy you could purchase a battery from fixit and replace it yourself. It's not difficult on that phone and there are plenty of videos showing what's involved online

 

[JSRinUK]

I have similar issues, and I found this post when searching.

I bought my iPhone SE in August 2018 from Littlewoods (UK mail order catalogue). The battery hasn’t been great for the last several months - sometimes the phone has switched off when out on a long run, and it’s only been a few hours since it came off the charger.

I bought the new iPhone SE recently, largely because of the lousy battery performance on my original SE.

The phone’s “Battery Health” shows 87% but when using CoconutBattery, it shows the phone having a full charge capacity of 1135mAh on a battery designed to have 1624mAh. About 70% battery health, and 514 charging cycles. This probably explains why I get such poor performance from it, and it’s only going to get worse.

I didn’t know much about replacement batteries in these phones, so I just had a look on the Apple UK website. That seemed to show that battery replacement might be free within warranty, otherwise £49.

I figured that sounds reasonable if it breathes new life into the old phone, so I’m going to give that a go. I went through the procedure and they didn’t charge anything, so my fingers are crossed I may get it replaced for free.

They’re sending a box out so I can post the phone to them over the next several days.

 

[xboxer75010]

It doesn't improve battery life, it could actually do the opposite in the short-term.

Lithium Ion batteries degrade over time, but the rate at which they degrade increase at high and low % of charge. The ideal charge range to keep the battery at is about 30% to 70% of the capacity. As the battery degrades, the maximum capacity of the battery is reduced.

The purpose of the 'Optimize Battery Charging' is to reduces the amount of long-term wear on the battery by learning ones' charging habits in an attempt to only charge up to 80% and not to go all the way to 100%.

I don't like the feature because it could limit how long a single charge can last. While I do not use my phone that often, there might be a particular day that I am on my phone longer than usual. I would much rather have the ability to a keep a longer charge than to have my iPhone's battery's capacity limited to 80%.

There has also been many reports that the feature is very buggy and doesn't always work.

The limiting the charging capacity to 80% is not true, once the iPhone learns your charging habits it will keep your phone at 80% until right before you get up, shortly before this it will charge to 100%. This is just an attempt to limit the time your battery spends fully charge which is damaging to it.

This article does a good job of explaining the details: https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/01/ios-13-iphone-optimized-battery-charging/amp/

 

[TomFromAndroid]

The limiting the charging capacity to 80% is not true, once the iPhone learns your charging habits it will keep your phone at 80% until right before you get up, shortly before this it will charge to 100%. This is just an attempt to limit the time your battery spends fully charge which is damaging to it.

This article does a good job of explaining the details: https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/01/ios-13-iphone-optimized-battery-charging/amp/

Good article, thanks for sharing. I think it explains part of my problem with this sentence:

If your schedule is erratic, it may never learn.

That happens to be the case with me, going to bed and getting up at different times each day. I'm often charging my phone during the day, rather than at night.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

I have similar issues, and I found this post when searching.

I bought my iPhone SE in August 2018 from Littlewoods (UK mail order catalogue). The battery hasn’t been great for the last several months - sometimes the phone has switched off when out on a long run, and it’s only been a few hours since it came off the charger.

I bought the new iPhone SE recently, largely because of the lousy battery performance on my original SE.

The phone’s “Battery Health” shows 87% but when using CoconutBattery, it shows the phone having a full charge capacity of 1135mAh on a battery designed to have 1624mAh. About 70% battery health, and 514 charging cycles. This probably explains why I get such poor performance from it, and it’s only going to get worse.

I didn’t know much about replacement batteries in these phones, so I just had a look on the Apple UK website. That seemed to show that battery replacement might be free within warranty, otherwise £49.

I figured that sounds reasonable if it breathes new life into the old phone, so I’m going to give that a go. I went through the procedure and they didn’t charge anything, so my fingers are crossed I may get it replaced for free.

They’re sending a box out so I can post the phone to them over the next several days.

Strangely, my SE seems to be a bit better after the latest OS update, 13.4.1 It still doesn't go quite as long on a charge as it did a few months ago, but the sudden drops from 50% downward have disappeared. Or possibly there have been changes made to some of the aftermarket apps that I have, perhaps making them a bit less power-hungry.

 

[JSRinUK]

Strangely, my SE seems to be a bit better after the latest OS update, 13.4.1 It still doesn't go quite as long on a charge as it did a few months ago, but the sudden drops from 50% downward have disappeared. Or possibly there have been changes made to some of the aftermarket apps that I have, perhaps making them a bit less power-hungry.

I'll be intrigued to see what happens if I get a battery replacement from Apple. I don't know if they'll charge me the £49 but, even if they do, if it breathes new life into the old SE it'll be worth every penny.

Yesterday, by bed time, my new SE still had over 50% battery in it. I've *never* had that from my old SE. Not even when I first bought it 20 months ago.

Right now, my old SE would get discarded because it's practically useless due to the battery issue. But, if a new battery resolves that issue, I'll be using it as a backup phone. I may even repurpose it. I'll be running a marathon in a few months time, and it would be handy to be able to give the old phone to my family so that they can track my progress (they don't have iPhones). That would be helpful but, right now, the old SE's battery would have the phone running out long before I'd finish running.