6s plus battery is a disaster. Help? (with screenshots)

[blues13]

Hi Everyone,

Been here on and off for a decade but never registered an account - probably because I've never had such a severe issue with an Apple product.

Upgraded to 9.1 last Wednesday via overnight download - I'd previously noticed my battery wearing out by day's end (and earlier than expected per specs) but since the new install it's gotten progressively worse. On Friday night, the phone plummeted down to around 30% and then abruptly died during use. Did a full erase and then restored from an iTunes backup. Noticed the battery would casually drop from 100% to 97% over the first 2-3 hours of the day, and then free fall into the 30's and 20's. Here's a few things I addressed to try to fix the problem:

Deleted the infamous Facebook App AND the new "fixed" version.
Limited Location Services predominantly to "never" or "while using" on apps that need it
Turned off all Background App Refresh
Kept display brightness around 20-25%
​

Here's the phone battery info this afternoon after a couple of phone calls and some occasional browsing:

And here it is again a couple hours later - it actually died right at 5%, so I had to plug it back in just to get these screenshots of the usage stats. One thing that's interesting is that the battery was closer to normal during the drop from 23% to 5%, but it's still dying really early:

I'm really frustrated - this is a 4-week old 64gb 6s-plus, connected to Wifi most of the day, and at this point the battery is completely unreliable. I'm also dealing with a bizarre discolored pressure spot on the top middle of the screen about 5mm under the time, even though I've treated the phone immaculately and had no run-ins of any kind. As someone who's had multiple iPhones with never a scratch on the screen, who chose to upgrade to get away from a faulty iPhone 5 battery, this whole thing has been tough to swallow.

Thanks guys! Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Allin44]

Do you usually have a weak signal like the one shown in these screenshots? That can most definitely affect your battery life in a negative way, but it shouldn't have THAT much of an effect. It appears you've got a shoddy device. I would highly recommend returning it to Apple and showing them these photos. Good luck.

 

[tremblewithfear6]

You may want to take your phone in to the Apple Store/Genius bar to get it checked. I have that same device, 64GB on Sprint, and it works very well. The battery easily lasts two full days without a charge, even on medium/heavy use. You shouldn't be having those issues.

 

[sunking101]

Have you tried a DFU restore, set up as a new phone and then just used it for a day to rule out problems with your backup?

 

[LimonJoe]

There are too many variables to diagnose battery life.
Turn off everything you do not absolutely need. The most I've gotten on my 6 is about 16 hours of screen on/usage time. No background refresh, no fetch, I don't have countless apps notifying me of things constantly; I don't need these things...it is possible to achieve fantastic battery life.

 

[stulaw11]

Definitely defective. My 6S gets 8 hours usage and the Plus version should last a noticeable amount longer than the regular size phone. Bring it to the Apple store.

There's nothing there running in the background excessively or excessive on screen time either that would be draining the battery.

 

[wchigo]

Likely you have a device with a factory defect; my 6s Plus with minimal background refresh and location services on, no Facebook app and auto-brightness gets me around 10-11 hours of mixed usage on 9.1 (I used to get around 12 hours easily of mixed usage on 9.0-9.0.2) so that seems absurdly low.

I'd definitely advise signing up for a Genius appointment to have it looked at or just ask for an exchange.

 

[Freakonomics101]

Did you try doing a standby battery test? If usage time goes up with your phone in standby, something is definitely running in the background that you may or may not have control of. Like others have mentioned, take the device to an Apple Store. I agree that the phone seems to have defective components in it. I have a 6 and mine provides much better battery life than that.

 

[jozeppy26]

If your signal is ALWAYS weak and you or the genius bar determines that the battery is completely normal, then maybe turn on wifi calling so it's not always searching for a cell signal. As a Sprint user who used to live in an apartment with horrible sprint service, this has always been my largest culprit.

 

[Sumter]

I consistently have around 1~3 signal bars max (it's barely ever better than -100dbm) inside my building and I stay inside a lot, but my phone has never had battery problems like that... so I doubt that's a low signal problem. As others have suggested, I recommend taking the device to an Apple store. It's probably defective.

 

[cbrand493]

Before you do go for a trip to apple, try as one user previously suggested and restore your phone in DFU and set up as new phone. Don't restore from a backup. If that doesn't fix your issue, then go to the Apple Store.

 

[9fiftyfive]

Hi Everyone,

Been here on and off for a decade but never registered an account - probably because I've never had such a severe issue with an Apple product.

Upgraded to 9.1 last Wednesday via overnight download - I'd previously noticed my battery wearing out by day's end (and earlier than expected per specs) but since the new install it's gotten progressively worse. On Friday night, the phone plummeted down to around 30% and then abruptly died during use. Did a full erase and then restored from an iTunes backup. Noticed the battery would casually drop from 100% to 97% over the first 2-3 hours of the day, and then free fall into the 30's and 20's. Here's a few things I addressed to try to fix the problem:

Deleted the infamous Facebook App AND the new "fixed" version.
Limited Location Services predominantly to "never" or "while using" on apps that need it
Turned off all Background App Refresh
Kept display brightness around 20-25%
​

Here's the phone battery info this afternoon after a couple of phone calls and some occasional browsing:

View attachment 597722



And here it is again a couple hours later - it actually died right at 5%, so I had to plug it back in just to get these screenshots of the usage stats. One thing that's interesting is that the battery was closer to normal during the drop from 23% to 5%, but it's still dying really early:

View attachment 597723

View attachment 597724

I'm really frustrated - this is a 4-week old 64gb 6s-plus, connected to Wifi most of the day, and at this point the battery is completely unreliable. I'm also dealing with a bizarre discolored pressure spot on the top middle of the screen about 5mm under the time, even though I've treated the phone immaculately and had no run-ins of any kind. As someone who's had multiple iPhones with never a scratch on the screen, who chose to upgrade to get away from a faulty iPhone 5 battery, this whole thing has been tough to swallow.

Thanks guys! Any help is greatly appreciated.

It's defective for sure. Just to save on battery until you get a replacement, turn off background app refresh. That should help a little.

 

[aldrinjtauro]

Yeah, make sure the issue is occurring on a clean restore of 9.1 that has been set up as new. If it's happening with that situation, take it to the Genius Bar. Make sure you don't wipe anything so your battery stats and diagnostics are still on the device. If you don't do this and the battery itself is "Normal", they can't do anything under warranty.

 

[RadioGaGa1984]

There are too many variables to diagnose battery life.
Turn off everything you do not absolutely need. The most I've gotten on my 6 is about 16 hours of screen on/usage time. No background refresh, no fetch, I don't have countless apps notifying me of things constantly; I don't need these things...it is possible to achieve fantastic battery life.

Sounds like all you need is a pager.

 

[CheesePuff]

This is indeed terrible battery life. I have the (Samsung chip) 6s Plus 64 GB and easily get triple those numbers.

I would do a full restore of iOS 9.1 from iTunes and test it out after that, if still the same exchange with Apple for a new model.

 

[Dacraft1]

My battery seems pretty good ! Go to Apple Store have them test it

 

[C DM]

My battery seems pretty good ! Go to Apple Store have them test it

That's for a 6s Plus?

 

[megalaser]

Looks like a hardware problem, take it back to the Apple Store

 

[Dacraft1]

That's for a 6s Plus?

Yes

 

[Max(IT)]

You don't have to compare battery life with people on this forums, as conditions are completely location (and user habits) based.

But you surely have sub-normal results....
Signal strenght is the main culprit for poor battery life (I can't pass 6 hrs of usage, and when Im staying in my hometown with good signal strength I can easily obtain 1hrs30min more), but your seems definitely defective.

 

[uhaas]

I've seen another thread where iCloud in 9.1 was killing the battery similar to this. You might want to try to log out of iCloud for a day and see if that fixes it. I believe it was a 9.1 bug for them.

 

[C DM]

Yes

That seems somewhat on the lower side for a 6s Plus--it's more or less average for a 6 or maybe a 6s.

 

[blues13]

First of all - thank you all for the replies and support.

I did a complete DFU restore last night. Took nearly forever to charge to 99% (about 10 hours) - and now I've got it with me at work as an essentially blank iPhone. Used Safari a little this morning, and have been watching the battery plummet 1% every 30 or so seconds for the past 10 minutes. We're at 65% already and sinking.

I've got an appointment at an Apple store this afternoon. Here's hoping it'll be a quick replacement.

 

[GreyOS]

Good luck
Fully charge it before you see them so you can show much much it's gone down in the time to get to the store
But they can do tests and I have no doubt they will find a defective battery and sort it very quickly

 

[9fiftyfive]

Good luck
Fully charge it before you see them so you can show much much it's gone down in the time to get to the store
But they can do tests and I have no doubt they will find a defective battery and sort it very quickly

They have diagnostics for the current state of the device, so if you reset (like you did), they won't be able to check previous results. You could show them those screenshots if they need more proof. Good luck!