Apple Store Battery Questions

[BigMcGuire]

Background Info: My wife's iPhone 6s+ has been shutting off at 20-40% and it drops like a brick from 100% to 40%. This has been going on for awhile (4+ months) - my wife can live with it so she does. I plug her phone into coconutBattery and it will sometimes show 90% health and other times below 80% health - it isn't consistent. When restarting the phone, the battery % reader will jump all over the place. For example, at 45%, we can shut off the phone, restart, and it will say 8%. You plug it into a charger and it will shoot up to 45% within 5 minutes.

So, got an appointment at Apple to have them check it. Of course, took them 30 minutes to see us after we got there ($*!@). The kind Genius did the "remote diagnostic thing" which failed to complete 3 times because "Issues Were Found" - he could never get it to complete but he blamed his iPad and said nothing was wrong with the iPhone. He also said the battery was 80%+ and there was nothing they could do.

I'm not upset at all, no worries (bigger things to worry about in life than this), he proceeds to spend 10 minutes kindly showing us how we should turn off GPS settings for Google products, etc... I thank him again (he was nice), and we head out.


Solution: I'm just going to pay to get a new battery. I think it's $80?

So my questions are: How long does it take them to replace the battery? The nearest Apple store is over an hour away from where I live. How long should I set aside for the battery replacement? I assume I should schedule a genius appointment again just like I did now?

Thanks for taking the time to read and help with questions (similar stories very welcome!).

 

[jenag145]

It shouldn't take them long to change it. When I had mine changed it took 20-25 minutes or so. Depends on the tech doing it. Do you have insurance on it? If you do you can get the battery for cheaper or even free

 

[BigMcGuire]

It shouldn't take them long to change it. When I had mine changed it took 20-25 minutes or so. Depends on the tech doing it. Do you have insurance on it? If you do you can get the battery for cheaper or even free

I just have AppleCare+. Nice to hear about the ~20-25 minutes! I was thinking hours. Very cool. I may just get my battery replaced too cuz we're planning on keeping these phones for awhile!

 

[Newtons Apple]

I just have AppleCare+. Nice to hear about the ~20-25 minutes! I was thinking hours. Very cool. I may just get my battery replaced too cuz we're planning on keeping these phones for awhile!

My neighbor's 6S+ took about 30-35 minutes.

It made the phone like new!

I would still do an encrypted backup before taking your phone in. You never know.

 

[jenag145]

I agree with @NewtonsApple

 

[Sinna17]

Make an appointment be there 5 mins early have find my iPhone off and a backup ready. You'll pick your phone up after an hour. They almost always quote at least an hour.

 

[44267547]

Make an appointment be there 5 mins early have find my iPhone off and a backup ready. You'll pick your phone up after an hour. They almost always quote at least an hour.

I would say that's mostly accurate, but it can take longer not due to the repair length, but due to the volume of the store and overall how busy they are. One store in my area is never under an hour, but it's also a heavily populated store.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Much can depend on how busy the service/repair department is.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My current battery is at 93% (215 cycles). Wondering if I should just replace mine too while I'm there. I made an apt for my wife and I today at 6:00pm at an apple store (2 hours away). Especially since I'm going to be keeping this 6s+ for awhile...

The wife's 6s+ we're definitely replacing. We did a test and put her phone down and it burned 55% battery in half a day without any usage - no apps are significantly using battery. I'm pretty sure her battery is shot (randomly shuts off at 40% and when we boot it back up, shows 8%).

Since mine is at 93% and falling about 1% every few months, maybe I should wait to see if it gets below 80% for a free replacement with AppleCare+? I can't make up my mind. $80 isn't a small amount of money, lol.

 

[Newtons Apple]

My current battery is at 93% (215 cycles). Wondering if I should just replace mine too while I'm there. I made an apt for my wife and I today at 6:00pm at an apple store (2 hours away). Especially since I'm going to be keeping this 6s+ for awhile...

The wife's 6s+ we're definitely replacing. We did a test and put her phone down and it burned 55% battery in half a day without any usage - no apps are significantly using battery. I'm pretty sure her battery is shot (randomly shuts off at 40% and when we boot it back up, shows 8%).

Your wife needs a new battery bad. It will make a huge difference. At 93% and 215 cycles you battery still has a good bit of life left in it. That is up to you.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Your wife needs a new battery bad. It will make a huge difference. At 93% and 215 cycles you battery still has a good bit of life left in it. That is up to you.

Would you do it if it was you? Knowing that the nearest Apple store is 1.1+ hours away? But $80! :/

 

[Mlrollin91]

Would you do it if it was you? Knowing that the nearest Apple store is 1.1+ hours away? But $80! :/

I don't even think Apple will replace it at 93%. I had an iPad 2 a few years back at 84% health and had to fight tooth and nail to replace the battery and I was paying for it! They are pretty set on the 80% mark or the battery is experiencing issues.

93% is still pretty solid in terms of remaining health. You have at least another 200 cycles on it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I don't even think Apple will replace it at 93%. I had an iPad 2 a few years back at 84% health and had to fight tooth and nail to replace the battery and I was paying for it! They are pretty set on the 80% mark or the battery is experiencing issues.

93% is still pretty solid in terms of remaining health. You have at least another 200 cycles on it.

I was wondering if they'd do that. In that case I may just keep mine to save the stress and the $80.

Going to definitely require they replace my wife's battery tho.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Newtons Apple]

I was wondering if they'd do that. In that case I may just keep mine to save the stress and the $80.

Going to definitely require they replace my wife's battery tho.

Thanks for the info!

I would save that money and maybe replace yours next year if needed. $80 is a nice thing to still have!

 

[BigMcGuire]

I would save that money and maybe replace yours next year if needed. $80 is a nice thing to still have!

Thanks @Newtons Apple ! And Thanks @Mlrollin91 !

 

[Coconut_one]

My both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus had the same battery issues after 400 charge cycles phone switches off @ 40% battery life.
Replaced both phone batteries by myself very easy running like a new phone again.

Just watch a couple youtube video's and your set to go very easy procedure.
Make sure you pickup a Genuine battery with Zero Battery cycles.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus had the same battery issues after 400 charge cycles phone switches off @ 40% battery life.
Replaced both phone batteries by myself very easy running like a new phone again.

Just watch a couple youtube video's and your set to go very easy procedure.
Make sure you pickup a Genuine battery with Zero Battery cycles.

Are you related to the coconutBattery app? Just curious.

Yeah I've done some battery replacements on iPhone 4s phones with third party replacements. Because the phone is still under AppleCare+ I wanna do it with official Apple store only --- but yeah if I was out of warranty I'd consider it for sure - replacing the battery with the right parts looks fairly doable. Thanks for the post

 

[Gav2k]

Out of curiosity have you restored the phone as new and tested the battery without all the bloat installed. Could be an issue in iOS carried over from a previous update or just a rouge app

 

[BigMcGuire]

Out of curiosity have you restored the phone as new and tested the battery without all the bloat installed. Could be an issue in iOS carried over from a previous update or just a rouge app

Yeah, that was the first thing we did. I had my wife reset her phone and set it up as new. But the battery problems exist. So I'm pretty sure it is the battery.

In coconutBattery the battery will show at 90% then drop to 80% and just fly all over (design capacity).

We can restart the phone and the battery % will be 15% different on almost every boot, its just going nuts. There is definitely something wrong with it - something that the remote test that the Genius did at the Apple store showed - it failed to complete 3 times in a row but he said it was his ipad's fault not the phone's fault and the phone showed "green" so he couldn't do anything.

But yeah we've reset the phone twice and nothing in the battery usage is using an insane amount (20%+) so we don't think it is a runaway app.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Well. After sitting for about just an hour we were seen. They apologized for the wait and without question took my wife's phone. Estimated time is 1.5 hours. Yehaw

 

[Sinna17]

Well. After sitting for about just an hour we were seen. They apologized for the wait and without question took my wife's phone. Estimated time is 1.5 hours. Yehaw. Lol

Question is did you make an appointment though? Lol

 

[BigMcGuire]

Question is did you make an appointment though? Lol

Yeah we were on time too. Lol at least the guy said sorry and thanked us for waiting patiently. That was nice.

 

[BigMcGuire]

The Northridge Apple store was horrible. I should have gone to the one closer to my house that we always go to. 3/4th of the Apple Geniuses in that store were just talking to each other the entire hour we were there. Other people around us were getting frustrated about the wait too.

Upon waiting 1 hour to be seen, and 1.5 hours for the battery to be changed, we got the phone back and ... only half the screen lit up - it was like the left half of the backlight was off. I had my wife quickly get a white background. We showed the guy who gave it to us and he agreed - rushed back quickly as the store was closing and 5 minutes later came out: "Oh, it was a loose cable!" So we walked away happily... or so we thought.

On the way to the car, after the Apple Store had closed, the phone rebooted 3 times. Auto brightness is completely broken. So on the 2 hour drive home I had my wife reset her phone completely to a new iPhone. Initially we thought it was ok but the phone still rebooted but less and less frequently to the point now where it doesn't reboot anymore.

Once we got home we noticed that even if you turn the screen off, the left half of the screen stays lit up. In a dark room you can really see it. Auto brightness is 100% broken. Set a brightness, turn off screen, turn on screen, you get bars across the screen and it resets to 50% every single time.

On a good note, battery life has to be at least 60% better than what she had. And I'm out $86 (thanks CA tax).

So frustrating because my wife has a business trip tomorrow for a week - which is why we went to get the battery fixed.... When the Genius plugged in the phone, he too got the "several issues found" but ignored them.


I'm thinking about taking apart the phone myself tonight (I have the screwdrivers) and seeing if they just didn't seat the cable correctly - but I don't want to screw anything up or void the AppleCare+ warranty. I've replaced batteries in iPod touches and I'm fairly good with tech but... ugh.

Won't be ever going back to that Apple store.
[doublepost=1501855203][/doublepost]How bad do you think it will be to leave her phone in this state for 1 week while she goes on her business trip? I told her to turn off her phone at night so the backlight can get rest until she gets back to CA and we can see Apple again (our local (1 hour away store) instead of the one 2 hours away).

The restarting seems to have gone away. The bars across the screen only appear when unlocking the phone sometimes (every other time). Battery life is AMAZING compared to her old battery which was obviously defective (thanks Apple for making me pay $86 for that).
[doublepost=1501855592][/doublepost]https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6s+Battery+Replacement/56607

Yeah, I'm not going to touch it. We'll just make an apt for when she gets back. :/

 

[DaveOP]

I'm thinking about taking apart the phone myself tonight (I have the screwdrivers) and seeing if they just didn't seat the cable correctly - but I don't want to screw anything up or void the AppleCare+ warranty. I've replaced batteries in iPod touches and I'm fairly good with tech but... ugh.

On a 6S, I wouldn't, for two reasons:

If I remember correctly (was a Genius a few years ago), the 6S has an adhesive strip around the frame of the display, which you wont be able to replace, and will have to cut to access the battery.

If they find that you broke the adhesive, they may note that the phone was tampered with, invalidating your AppleCare+ and denying service.

They absolutely should just replace the phone now, I am surprised they didn't do that when you got it back and it was working so poorly.

 

[BigMcGuire]

They absolutely should just replace the phone now, I am surprised they didn't do that when you got it back and it was working so poorly.

Yeah I read that adhesive part - nope nope nope. lol.

Yeah, I agree - I think it was cuz the store was closing - helped them wanting to get us out of there. Oh well. We'll make an apt at the one we usually go to (1 hour away) and hope they can fix it when my wife goes back.

Hah, my wife's business/school trip is to Portland