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Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,554
My iPhone has recently started to die at 30% battery remaining, every time. I have heard that you are supposed to let the battery drain to reset the battery gauge, but I can't do that because...if it hit's 30% it dies and I have to charge it again.

I plan on backing up and restoring when I get a chance, but is there anything else I could try first?
 
It's still under Apple Care - right? I would be giving Apple a call. That is not normal.
 
Are you in a snowy or very cold area? My phone began to die between 30-40 percent during a trip snowboarding but it went right back to normal when I got home.
 
My iPhone 4s and 5 did that, but it was solved with new batteries I put in. But that was after 2+ years and a little bad luck. Batteries are chemical based and some of them fail early.

I wouldn't say it's software, especially after a restore with nothing on the phone where it still does it. Sounds like you need a new battery sadly. Shouldn't be more than $30 I wouldn't think.

Always try a fresh restore though to rule it out.
 
I have the 6+ also and I have not really worried about draining it to reset the battery. I have let it get down to below 20% before charging but I have never drained it. What I read said to do it to get an idea how long it will last but it is not necessary. Mine will last for two days with no issues and I tend to use it a lot.

That said you should be able to get below 30% and not have it shut down. If you have an apple store close by you can make an appointment for the genius bar and have them test it for free.
 
I wouldn't say it's software, especially after a restore with nothing on the phone where it still does it. Sounds like you need a new battery sadly. Shouldn't be more than $30 I wouldn't think.

Always try a fresh restore though to rule it out.

Yes, I will do a fresh restore later tonight. I really hope that will fix it because I don't really want to fork over $79 to Apple to replace a battery only 15 months old (really wish we had EU-style consumer protection), and the 6 Plus battery replacement instructions on iFixit look a bit...intimidating,more complicated than the MBP trackpad and battery replacements I've done before.

This is reminding me that my iPhone did die prematurely a few times in the past, but at 9 or 10 percent. It was never repeatable like this, though.
 
Hmm, shame on me for not looking at iFixit. It does look like things have changed a bit from the 4s/5. 4s was a piece of cake since it just had a back panel and the battery was right there. The 5 was a bit harder, but I never had to remove the display, rather I just propped it up against something and swapped the battery that way. It is a bit crazy what Apple charges to replace a sub $10 part. But that's what they do.
 
It seems a restore fixed it, but now it seems I can't re-add a credit card to Apple Pay. Stuck in an infinite "sign in to iCloud" loop. Restarting, signing out/in does nothing.
 
Well, it's happening again. But this time it happened at 90%. I guess I will take it into the Apple Store this weekend. Anyone have any luck getting Apple to replace batteries out of warranty? I will probably go the iFixit route if they won't.
 
My iPhone has recently started to die at 30% battery remaining, every time. I have heard that you are supposed to let the battery drain to reset the battery gauge, but I can't do that because...if it hit's 30% it dies and I have to charge it again.

I plan on backing up and restoring when I get a chance, but is there anything else I could try first?
hopefully you've already found the solution but you most likely need your battery replaced. The link below is correct. This affects 6S's only with a very specific manufacturing date. Check your serial number and then if it says that yours is one of the ones with the defect they will replace the battery for free. Pretty painless at the Apple store and mine was over a year old before I got irritated enough to look to see if there was a problem. They didn't even mention the age, just looked up the serial # and replaced the battery. https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/
 
I don't know why iPhone is having the problem over 30% remaining battery because my sister is also using the iPhone 6+ and she has never faced any problem.

I think you take the help of Apple customer care. Hope your problem will resolve.
 
hopefully you've already found the solution but you most likely need your battery replaced. The link below is correct. This affects 6S's only with a very specific manufacturing date. Check your serial number and then if it says that yours is one of the ones with the defect they will replace the battery for free. Pretty painless at the Apple store and mine was over a year old before I got irritated enough to look to see if there was a problem. They didn't even mention the age, just looked up the serial # and replaced the battery. https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

I have a 6, not a 6S. Battery had to be replaced, but it was likely different than the 6S issue.
 
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