iPhone 6 battery issue

[braumeister]

I'm pretty unhappy with Apple's obvious planned obsolescence.

Perhaps this comes down to my frustration that my stinginess has been overcome by Apples implementation of a system (be it throttling or software bloat) that forces me to spend for a new phone more frequently than I would like.

WADR, that's an emotional response IMHO, because there is no "planned obsolescence" per se.

We have people here on this forum who have mentioned that they have old computers running Windows 95 for various reasons, and I know of at least one person who still uses an operational Mac SE from nearly 30 years ago. They keep them around because they like using some custom software that can't run on newer systems.

We buy new computers and upgrade older ones because we want the new features they offer. That's not planned obsolescence; it's just progress.

 

[Midpack]

That's a fair point. I hadn't looked at it like that.

Perhaps this comes down to my frustration that my stinginess has been overcome by Apples implementation of a system (be it throttling or software bloat) that forces me to spend for a new phone more frequently than I would like.

And are you sure Samsung and other brands have batteries with a longer ultimate useful life? I’m not as cynical, I think Apple and Samsung make good products, and I don’t think obsolescence is their one of the highest priorities. There a big trade offs involved. Think about all a smartphone does these days, in a small VERY thin “package” that fits in your pocket or purse. It’s pretty amazing...

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

WADR, that's an emotional response IMHO, because there is no "planned obsolescence" per se.
.................
We buy new computers and upgrade older ones because we want the new features they offer. That's not planned obsolescence; it's just progress.

I disagree. I'm perfectly happy with my iPhone 6 (and iPad) and the features it had. No need to upgrade to iOS11 because I didn't want any of its features, but the upgrade popup made my phone nearly unusable with its constant pop-up asking me to upgrade. It was unbelievably obnoxious. Once I upgraded my phone performance took a drastic hit. And once you've "upgraded" to iOS11, there's no going back.

The difference between your example is that with an older PC I can stay on Win95 forever and not have a degradation of performance. Staying on iOS10 was not an option given the crippling of my phone with the constant nagging to upgrade.

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

And are you sure Samsung and other brands have batteries with a longer ultimate useful life?

Did I imply somewhere that they do? I would suspect that they do not. But I don't know if that is any absolution for Apple.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I have an iPhone 6+ bought the day it was released, which would be September 2014. I charge every night and usually don’t run it down below 50%, but on occasion it goes down below 20%. The app “Battery Life” claims the battery has an “11% wear level.” I’m anxious to see what the iOS update will say.

 

[nash031]

I have an iPhone 6+ bought the day it was released, which would be September 2014. I charge every night and usually don’t run it down below 50%, but on occasion it goes down below 20%. The app “Battery Life” claims the battery has an “11% wear level.” I’m anxious to see what the iOS update will say.

PSA: Earlier in the thread, I recommended running a free app from the app store. I will now caution you on taking anything that app says for truth. Why? Because I ran the app three days ago and got 55%. I ran it this afternoon and got 83%. I powered my phone down, started it back up and got 66% about ten minutes later. I opened three apps and ran it again, just for the hell of it, and got 83% again.

As far as I can tell, the app "Battery Life" is a random number generator.

Best advice is that Apple will assess your battery at their "Genius bar". Before the end of last year, they were offering the $29 price for anyone whose battery scored less than 80% on their test. Now, they will tell you you don't need it replaced if above 80%, but they will still do it for you at the $29 price if you want.

I'll report back when I get mine changed on Monday.

 

[Mo Money]

MichaelB --

I had EXACT same experience in Pittsburgh. And they were out of batteries even though I made a Genius Bar appointment and said it was an iPhone 6 battery issue. I made a huge stink -- loudly -- and told them that they should have reserved a battery for me when I made the appointment. It was escalated to the manager, who was unsympathetic.

I got even louder -- politely -- but boy was I a PITA. I demanded a free battery. The manager said no way. I got louder and argued that this was a scam. Then the manager did a 180 and agreed to a free battery in writing. They made an appointment for 2 weeks from now.

The next day I got an Apple survey by email. I had taken the manager's name, and complained vociferously.

We'll see if they will honor the manager's 180-degree turnaround commitment...

 

[ERD50]

PSA: Earlier in the thread, I recommended running a free app from the app store. I will now caution you on taking anything that app says for truth. ...

As far as I can tell, the app "Battery Life" is a random number generator.

...

Seemed weird, but I think this explains it:

4 ways to check your iPhone battery health

First things first, you shouldn’t waste any time searching and testing third-party apps from the App Store that claim to give you battery information. Since the release of iOS 10, Apple has cut off access to battery details for third-party apps in the App Store, making these apps completely useless.

If true, then maybe the app worked when released, but not with IOS10? The API may indeed be returning a random number!

-ERD50

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

Apple claiming future iOS update will allow users to turn off power management features;

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/17/tim-cook-on-iphone-battery-controversy/

 

[Kristinia]

I too had an IPhone 6plus and the battery would go from 100% to 70% simply driving to the grocery store less than 3 miles away. I took all apps off my phone thinking they were draining my battery life. Charged it the way Apple said and stopped streaming music for fear I would be left with no battery. I did this for over a year. Finally I took it into the Sprint store for help. The dude ran diagnostics (I paid extra for coverage on the phone for items like this) and after a full day he gave the phone back to me and said nothing was wrong with it. I told him that the battery is not holding a charge and he again repeated nothing was wrong with it as though I was deaf and did not understand him the first time. Sooo after being a lifelong Apple person I switched out to Samsung Galaxy phone and am very happy with it. This was 6 months ago so this news about the battery being intentially slowed down by Apple is somewhat vindicating for me that I was not nuts...that my phone truly had an issue. However, I will never go back to IPhone. Samsung is so much better, user friendly and far out performs Apple

 

[greydog17]

DW and I both have iPhone 6 since late 2014, mine had battery dying problem last spring and I had battery replaced at local 3rd party repair shop for $55 vs Apple store charge of $80+, and its worked fine since. Hers started acting up in Nov, requiring more frequent charges and less charged time when outside in cold. Last week made same day appointment online with Apple store where they scanned her phone in ~2 min and found that battery had cycled 800+ times on their std lifecycle of 1000. So they agreed to replace battery at the $29 fee and placed us in list for one, and when they receive their resupply they'll notify and schedule appt for replacing. Pretty straight forward process.

 

[Danmar]

Yes, I went to an apple store and enquired about getting a new battery for my 6s. No appointment, long wait times, issue about stock, etc. So just bit the bullet and got a new X. Quite like it, was expensive though.

 

[Richard4444]

I'm perfectly happy with my iPhone 6 (and iPad) and the features it had. No need to upgrade to iOS11 because I didn't want any of its features, but the upgrade popup made my phone nearly unusable with its constant pop-up asking me to upgrade. It was unbelievably obnoxious. Once I upgraded my phone performance took a drastic hit. And once you've "upgraded" to iOS11, there's no going back.

I am still running iOS 10.3 on my iPhone 6 to avoid the performance issues you allude to. With Spectre and Meltdown being a security issue (and likely fixed in 11.2.x) ... I'm still waiting and evaluating the risk. My plan as of now is to get a new battery end of year and hope they won't automatically update my iPhone iOS to 11 at that time. Of course, a lot may likely happen before end of year.

Rich

 

[Sunset]

Yes, I went to an apple store and enquired about getting a new battery for my 6s. No appointment, long wait times, issue about stock, etc. So just bit the bullet and got a new X. Quite like it, was expensive though.

You are a perfect Apple customer.

Their plan is working...

All this talk has made me thing I should buy a new battery for my LG phone, it's user replaceable so it will be a breeze.

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

And are you sure Samsung and other brands have batteries with a longer ultimate useful life?

Did I imply somewhere that they do? I would suspect that they do not. But I don't know if that is any absolution for Apple.

This has been bothering me for a couple of days and I'm sorry I didn't post this when the thread was more active.

Midpack, my choice of words in my response was extremely poor and do not convey the meaning I intended them to. I did not mean my reply as a sarcastic / confrontational / defensive "Did I imply somewhere that they did?" like I posted.

My intention was to convey that I don't think I made any excuses for other companies because I'm sure to some degree they all do the same (planned obsolescence / using cheaper / less capable batteries than some might consider proper).

I am sorry for the poor choice of words I used.

 

[FI_RElater]

re: I-phone 6 battery

PSA: Earlier in the thread, I recommended running a free app from the app store. I will now caution you on taking anything that app says for truth. Why? Because I ran the app three days ago and got 55%. I ran it this afternoon and got 83%. I powered my phone down, started it back up and got 66% about ten minutes later. I opened three apps and ran it again, just for the hell of it, and got 83% again.

As far as I can tell, the app "Battery Life" is a random number generator.

Best advice is that Apple will assess your battery at their "Genius bar". Before the end of last year, they were offering the $29 price for anyone whose battery scored less than 80% on their test. Now, they will tell you you don't need it replaced if above 80%, but they will still do it for you at the $29 price if you want.

I'll report back when I get mine changed on Monday.

well, i wasn’t as lucky... i had noticed battery degradation issue in early november before they announced the lower cost replacement : if you went to the battery in settings it had a notice (can’t remember the wording)

so I went into an apple store and got a replacement (then full price at $79), they had only a couple batteries still in stock and the manager had the tech complete the work by end of day ( they are quite a few miles from me). i’ve set i-phone to show the battery condition but have not upgraded to version 11 due to the issues that others have noted (and because I don’t use most of the settings that the upgrade is supposed to help with)

[it doesn’t seem that the new battery is quite as consistent as the original OEM that came with it (although it was replaced in an official store// they had run diagnostics that showed that it did need replacement, as well, just as I had suspected)
I suspect that if this battery doesn’t seem to hold charge better by later in the year that it would be better to replace again (now at $29) to better insure performance over the next year.
{BTW: first apple product— needed certain aspects last year and not yet fully wedded to them but spouse has used their products for some time and likely would continue}

 

[devans0]

Having Apple 5s, we did not qualify for rebates, but battery life wasn't an issue, our phones still charged adequately. We would only charge on every third/fourth day or so, FWIW.

We upgraded because the tech was getting old and was no longer being supported. DW upgraded to the X or whatever the newest iPhone is, I switched to Google's newest offering. I never cared much for Apple's implementation of simplicity, and the biggest screen was a huge plus for me. With the larger screen, battery life will probably go down.

Tethering seems more reliable/simpler with my Android phone. That was unexpected. Our car is optimised for Apple.

 

[Car-Guy]

iPhone 6 here and no problems at all, so far.

 

[Danmar]

You are a perfect Apple customer.

Their plan is working...

All this talk has made me thing I should buy a new battery for my LG phone, it's user replaceable so it will be a breeze.

I know. A little disappointed in myself. But just couldn’t be bothered.

 

[HFWR]

The timing couldn’t be more perfect to brick my iphone6, as my last payment is next month. The battery is performing satisfactorily, so I’ll deal with the built-in hesitation. Not happy though...

 

[GalaxyBoy]

DW is bugging me to rush to our nearest Apple Store (110 miles away) and get a new battery. I'm trying to convince her that since neither of our phones is showing a battery issue or slowdown yet, coupled with the reports of long waits for batteries, we should put it off until late in 2018.

 

[nash031]

DW is bugging me to rush to our nearest Apple Store (110 miles away) and get a new battery. I'm trying to convince her that since neither of our phones is showing a battery issue or slowdown yet, coupled with the reports of long waits for batteries, we should put it off until late in 2018.

Updating here, related: If you’re hoping for a replacement 6 battery, Apple is telling retailers not to expect them until late Feb or March. Glad I called Best Buy before making the 56 mile drive to get them to tell me my battery was bad and that I needed a replacement they don’t have.

Lesson: call ahead and ask if they have in stock before you go. Otherwise, they’ll just tell you if you have an issue or not.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

iOS 11.3 installed today. The new Battery Health (Beta) widget under settings shows my iPhone 6+ still has a maximum capacity of 94% and is not being throttled. Not bad.

 

[Go-NoGo]

iOS 11.3 installed today. The new Battery Health (Beta) widget under settings shows my iPhone 6+ still has a maximum capacity of 94% and is not being throttled. Not bad.

I did the same and I don't believe it. Once I get lower than 60% capacity, the battery goes to 30% in a couple of hours without use - it never did that 6 months ago.

I don't quite buy what apple is saying about the capacity. it May be 96% of the original but the discharge curve seems to have changed. Also it seems to self discharge when capacity is lower.

Fortunately about 3 weeks ago I scheduled a replacement with Apple and I am about to leave in the next hour to get it replaced. Will post again in this thread with my observations with a new battery

 

[Chuckanut]

I have read that the latest version of iOS has a feature that will help preserve battery life for those who like to plug their phone in when going to bed and let it charge up to 100% all night.

I have also heard that apple power supplies work better with the iPhone to preserve battery life than the cheap ones. I cannot confirm this.