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

That mysterious disappearing battery usage...

P

pgoelz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 20, 2017
238
90
I'm new here.... and new to iOS. Long time android user but I just got an iPhone SE to try out the Apple world. I like small phones and since I am an ATT customer the Best Buy deal for the SE ($149) was too good to pass up.

For the most part the SE works great. But I am finding that the battery usage stats seem to appear and disappear without any rhyme or reason. After a LOT of research, I find lots of reports of this issue online with lots of the usual "try this" suggestions but nothing seems to be "the" cure. And all the threads seem to eventually just die without any usable conclusion.

I'm currently running 11.2 b4 but this was happening on 11.1 as well.

What is the current thinking on this issue? A quirk? A bug? I'm holding it wrong?

Paul
 
Usage and standby times start getting calculated once your device is essentially fully charged. If the device is powered down or restarted (or if it crashes and resprings) then those times get cleared out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Armen and tromboneaholic
Well, a restart (is that what you call a "respring"?) could explain it if it was restarting without my knowledge. This morning I was surprised when it asked for my PIN before it would unlock..... perhaps it restarted overnight? However, most of the time when I find the usage stats missing, it unlocks with just a fingerprint without first asking for my PIN so I assume that indicates it did NOT restart?

Is there an easy way to tell if it has restarted while I was not looking?

And just curious.... if it was this simple, why did I find so many threads without that as an explanation?

Paul
[doublepost=1511194475][/doublepost]Ah, thanks. Now that you pointed me in the respring direction I found some useful search results and (mostly) understand the difference between a respring and a full restart, as well as how it could explain the missing battery stats. But it raises another question.... other than a full on app crash, what can cause a respring in normal operation and is there any way to tell that it happened after the fact? At no time have I ever noticed a ten second delay (or any delay, for that matter) after performing any operation like changing wallpaper or installing / deleting an app.... is it possible a respring occurred due to my actions and I just didn't notice it?

But at least now I know what to look for if my battery stats suddenly disappear.

Paul
 
Last edited:
Well, I'm back again. Battery stats (app by app usage percentages) have vanished several times in the interim, only to mysteriously re-appear without any obvious action on my part.

When they vanish, the "time since last full charge" usage is still present, so this would NOT seem to be caused by a full reboot (which resets those numbers to all dashes). Still unsure if a springboard crash is to blame..... how can you tell if there has been a springboard crash? At NO time when the phone is in use has any app crashed back to the springboard. EVER. The percentages are simply there one minute and gone the next time I look for them.

It is also telling that if you search for "ios missing battery stats" you find quite a few threads describing the issue with lots of the usual suggestions (charge the phone, discharge the phone, reset the phone, etc.) but the next post usually states that did NOT bring the missing stats back. None of those suggestions has brought them back on my phone. When they re-appear, it seems to be random and not because of anything I did.

How does one provide feedback to Apple on this? I do not currently have a beta profile installed so I don't have the feedback app. And is there a list of reported issues somewhere?
 
Last edited:
pgoelz said:
Well, a restart (is that what you call a "respring"?) could explain it if it was restarting without my knowledge. This morning I was surprised when it asked for my PIN before it would unlock..... perhaps it restarted overnight? However, most of the time when I find the usage stats missing, it unlocks with just a fingerprint without first asking for my PIN so I assume that indicates it did NOT restart?

Is there an easy way to tell if it has restarted while I was not looking?

And just curious.... if it was this simple, why did I find so many threads without that as an explanation?

Paul
[doublepost=1511194475][/doublepost]Ah, thanks. Now that you pointed me in the respring direction I found some useful search results and (mostly) understand the difference between a respring and a full restart, as well as how it could explain the missing battery stats. But it raises another question.... other than a full on app crash, what can cause a respring in normal operation and is there any way to tell that it happened after the fact? At no time have I ever noticed a ten second delay (or any delay, for that matter) after performing any operation like changing wallpaper or installing / deleting an app.... is it possible a respring occurred due to my actions and I just didn't notice it?

But at least now I know what to look for if my battery stats suddenly disappear.

Paul
Click to expand...
FYI, there are many conditions besides a respring that can trigger TouchID or FaceID to request a password.
  • after you restart your iPhone, iPad, or Mac;
  • when more than 48 hours have passed from the last time you unlocked your device;
  • to add or delete a fingerprint to use with Touch ID;
  • to change the iPhone or iPad passcode or Mac system password, and for other security settings like FileVault on your Mac;
  • when there have been more than five unrecognized Touch ID authorization attempts in a row; and
  • after you log out of your Mac.
 
I recall several years back, using an older iphone model, having a similar issue. It only happened for several weeks of getting the ohone, then went away. I had assumed it was because the OS was “learning” the battery... and once it knew the discharge pattern of the battery started showing stats as normal. Never found a different/better expanation.

Edit: just forwarded that best buy deal to my dad to consider.
 
Well, this issue is continuing intermittently into beta 3. Per app battery stats appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason that I can see. When they reappear, they often include usage from apps that were uninstalled in the interval where the stats were missing. So the data is still being collected.... just the user interface goes missing. Currently they have been missing since before updating to beta 3 and have not reappeared (yet) after a full charge and reboot.

There have been all sorts of speculative explanations for this behavior but none seem to be definitive. So instead of speculating, I decided to call Apple support and see what they had to say about it. In spite of finding descriptions of this identical issue in online forums as far back as 2014, the answer I got from the support specialist.... and her support supervisor..... was "gee, nobody has ever reported that to use before". Seriously????? She did say, however, that "you would be surprised how many people talk about issues but never report them to Apple" so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. For now ;)

She said she would check with engineering and scheduled a followup callback for next Thursday (a week from today). I'll update this thread when I hear back.

Paul
 
Battery usage will only show if the stays powered on and with at least 90-100% charged. If you update, respring or restart your device, it will reset to - until you charge it up 90%. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it since it can drive you battery crazed.
 
Banglazed said:
Battery usage will only show if the stays powered on and with at least 90-100% charged. If you update, respring or restart your device, it will reset to - until you charge it up 90%. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it since it can drive you battery crazed.
Click to expand...
I am not worried about it. My battery life is spectacular. What I am is curious. And FWIW, the stats (when missing) do NOT (usually) reappear after a full charge. As I said before, I have fully charged many times (and at least once since updating to beta 3). It does / did not bring the per app battery stats back. Most of the time, anyway. And when they decide to reappear, there does not seem to be any identifiable reason. It has been a day and a full charge since updating and the per app stats are still missing.... it still says "Battery information will return after using iPhone for a few minutes". "Time since last full charge" shows 40 minutes of use and 23 hours and 54 minutes of standby.

Paul
 
pgoelz said:
I am not worried about it. My battery life is spectacular. What I am is curious. And FWIW, the stats (when missing) do NOT (usually) reappear after a full charge. As I said before, I have fully charged many times (and at least once since updating to beta 3). It does / did not bring the per app battery stats back. Most of the time, anyway. And when they decide to reappear, there does not seem to be any identifiable reason. It has been a day and a full charge since updating and the per app stats are still missing.... it still says "Battery information will return after using iPhone for a few minutes". "Time since last full charge" shows 40 minutes of use and 23 hours and 54 minutes of standby.

Paul
Click to expand...
can you do a screenshot when you got a chance
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0083.PNG
    IMG_0083.PNG
    98.6 KB · Views: 547
Wireless charger? Per my signature, this is an iPhone SE. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with charging. When the stats vanish, it can be hours or days after the last charge. It is also interesting that when the stats do finally re-appear, they seem to include usage that occurred while they were missing. The DATA seems to be being accumulated normally.... just the user interface is missing.

My best guess, this is a VERY long standing bug since it has been present in several past ios versions.

Note that when the per app battery stats vanish, the usage time stats never do.... they only go away if I plug in but do not fully charge (as expected).

Paul
 
Last edited:
The only thing I wanted to clarify was the difference between a Respring and a Restart.

Respring: This is when the iOS Springboard encounters an error and restarts.
(Per Wikipedia: "SpringBoard is the standard application that manages the iOS home screen.").
You'll see one of these things during a respring:
1. A black screen with a circle progress indicator in the middle, followed by the lock screen 2-5 seconds later.
2. The Apple logo (like it's booting up), with the lock screen 2-5 seconds later.

Restart: A normal power off, then back on, or a forced restart (pressing and holding hold+home until you see the apple logo).
 
pgoelz said:
Well, this issue is continuing intermittently into beta 3. Per app battery stats appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason that I can see. When they reappear, they often include usage from apps that were uninstalled in the interval where the stats were missing. So the data is still being collected.... just the user interface goes missing. Currently they have been missing since before updating to beta 3 and have not reappeared (yet) after a full charge and reboot.

There have been all sorts of speculative explanations for this behavior but none seem to be definitive. So instead of speculating, I decided to call Apple support and see what they had to say about it. In spite of finding descriptions of this identical issue in online forums as far back as 2014, the answer I got from the support specialist.... and her support supervisor..... was "gee, nobody has ever reported that to use before". Seriously????? She did say, however, that "you would be surprised how many people talk about issues but never report them to Apple" so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. For now ;)

She said she would check with engineering and scheduled a followup callback for next Thursday (a week from today). I'll update this thread when I hear back.

Paul
Click to expand...
Come back to Android.

Battery stats works. The phone doesn't slow down when a new model is released. The calculator works. You can plug headphones into it without an adaptor.
 
Mildredop said:
Come back to Android.

Battery stats works. The phone doesn't slow down when a new model is released. The calculator works. You can plug headphones into it without an adaptor.
Click to expand...
So true. And I would like to return to Android for all those reasons. However, the Android world currently does not contain any reasonably priced small phones. Plus, with the demise of the Nexus line there are no reasonably priced Android phones that will get support for more than the usual two year period.

I'm sticking with Apple for the moment. The battery in my SE can be replaced without potentially destroying the phone and it should get updates for longer than the usual two years. And while annoying, the battery stats issue is pretty innocuous. Other than that, it has been flawless with as good or better battery life than my various Android phones (some of which were very good). And heck, I only paid $149 for it ;)

Paul
 
Last edited:
pgoelz said:
So true. And I would like to return to Android for all those reasons. However, the Android world currently does not contain any reasonably priced small phones. Plus, with the demise of the Nexus line there are no reasonably priced Android phones that will get support for more than the usual two year period.

I'm sticking with Apple for the moment. The battery in my SE can be replaced without potentially destroying the phone and it should get updates for longer than the usual two years. And while annoying, the battery stats issue is pretty innocuous. Other than that, it has been flawless with as good or better battery life than my various Android phones (some of which were very good). And heck, I only paid $149 for it ;)

Paul
Click to expand...

I didn't realise Apple sold such cheap phones - I assumed a new iPhone would be upwards of $700.
 
Mildredop said:
I didn't realise Apple sold such cheap phones - I assumed a new iPhone would be upwards of $700.
Click to expand...
Yup, Best Buy had them for $149 before Thanksgiving. And for Black Friday they even lowered them to $129 for a while. Supposed to be a prepaid phone so it is locked to ATT but can be unlocked after six months. Works fine on a postpaid account, though. I'm assuming ATT subsidized them.... they also had the Verizon version but it was $199. Never done the "Apple thing" before but at that price (and because I like small phones) I could not resist ;)

Paul
 
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