"Unable to validate battery cycle count"

[pigeonguy]

Hi,

So I'm experiencing a weird issue with my iPhone 12 Pro...

For a couple years now, I've been experiencing terrible battery life - I struggle to get 2-3 hours of screen-on time.

Obviously I reached out to Apple several times and each time they told me my battery is fine, they quoted my health at 81%...

According to system settings, however, it's been at 81% for nearly 2 years now. That seems incredibly unlikely ...


I connected my phone to my iMac and ran coconutBattery, which revealed something quite puzzling... My cycle count has apparently decreased? By a non-insignificant amount....

Over a year ago, my phone was at ~600 cycles. Today, coconutBattery quotes less than 300 cycles, somehow...


Well, I recently installed the iOS 27 beta and was messing around with the new recovery mode. While tinkering in recovery, I used the "MRI" feature to run a diagnostic test on my phone. It came back with a warning about my battery, saying "Battery health could not be verified.". I finally felt validated once I saw this.

The issue is, Apple is ignoring my claims that something is wrong. They insist that the phone is fine, despite evidence to the contrary. They're refusing to cover the battery replacement under AppleCare and are insisting I pay out-of-pocket for a repair.


What the heck do I do here? Has anyone ever heard of an issue like this???

 

[iStorm]

If you have AppleCare, Apple won't replace the battery until the health goes below 80%. They go by what their diagnostics say and rarely investigate anomalies unless you really press them or can demonstrate the bad battery.

A while back, my Mom had three-year-old iPhone where the battery health was saying something like 96%, but could only hold a charge for a few hours. Had to show them that the charge level was jumping all over the place while it was being charged (jumping from 10% to 95% within a matter of minutes).

I'd DFU restore back to iOS 26 and see what the battery health says now. If it's below 80% now, take it back to Apple and show them. Or wait until iOS 27 is released and take it to them then. I don't think they'll go by what the beta is showing, since they could just say it's a bug.

If you don't have AppleCare or would rather just pay to have the battery replaced, you should be able to do that.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Well, I recently installed the iOS 27 beta and was messing around with the new recovery mode. While tinkering in recovery, I used the "MRI" feature to run a diagnostic test on my phone. It came back with a warning about my battery, saying "Battery health could not be verified.". I finally felt validated once I saw this.


What the heck do I do here? Has anyone ever heard of an issue like this???

A while back, my Mom had three-year-old iPhone where the battery health was saying something like 96%, but could only hold a charge for a few hours. Had to show them that the charge level was jumping all over the place while it was being charged (jumping from 10% to 95% within a matter of minutes).

An iPhone battery can last much more than 1000 cycles!!!

[/QUOTE] The “jumps” are not some conspiracy, etc. Instead, it’s most likely the behavior of degraded calibration. https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-603-how-to-calibrate-a-smart-battery Perform a (few) recalibration(s) and then show us the battery health values, iOS and coconutBattery...

forums.macrumors.com

An iPhone battery can last much more than 1000 cycles!!!

Ok so now I calibrated the battery once and the coconutBattery health aligned to battery health of the settings app. It displays 90% now, which should be the real SoH. And not the 100% from before. This shows that an uncalibrated battery management system can show a false health value for the...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Bigwaff]

Try calibrating the battery and check battery health again.

Battery Calibration

All newly-installed smart batteries should be calibrated as soon as possible. This helps your phone or laptop get an accurate reading on the battery’s state of charge.

www.ifixit.com