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AT&T iPhone 6 and AT&T 6 Plus = LTE->4G->LTE->4G = battery drain.

W

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Original poster
Mar 29, 2008
10,043
3,953
Seattle
Hey all,

In the last week, my AT&T iPhone 6 Plus and my wife's AT&T iPhone 6 have been experiencing massive battery drain. I mean going to bed and waking up to 40%-life drops - with no apps running, no background apps, no location services, no WiFi or Bluetooth on.

I narrowed it down to AT&T. I can watch my full-signal LTE signal switch to 4G and then back to LTE at least four or five times a minute. Something is very broken. It does this when the LTE setting is set to both just Data or Data+Voice.

I borrowed my neighbor's T-Mobile SIM and I have no issues maintaining an LTE signal.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? I'm in Seattle, if that helps.
 
PsyOpWarlord said:
Looks like ATT is having issues or working on the network in your area.

About all you can do is report the issue to ATT. You can call them or report it via their App:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-t-mark-the-spot/id338307313?mt=8#

If it is that big of an issue for you in the mean time, you could try just turning LTE off until they solve the problem in your area.
Click to expand...

I did turn off LTE, of course. I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same issue. Seems like a long time (about a week) that this has been going on for, which is a bit odd...
 
No. I purchase a Verizon iPhone at full price and just put my SIM from my previous iPhone 5 into it and it worked.

But I got a text message from AT&T telling me to get a new SIM card from them. The new SIM cards are needed when your area switches over to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and WiFi calling. to make use of the new features . Your phone will still work on the old SIM but you won't be able to use the new features until you get the new SIM card.

They could be working on converting your area over to VoLTE. The only thing you can do is to keep reporting the issue to ATT every few days (you have to keep on them). There could actually be issues with your local tower and ATT is not aware because people are not reporting it.

What happens if you drive across town (out of range of the tower at your house)? Are you still seeing the issues there on a different tower? If so the issue is not with the tower but with ATT's network in your area. If it only happens at your house, then the issue is local with the tower.
 
PsyOpWarlord said:
No. I purchase a Verizon iPhone at full price and just put my SIM from my previous iPhone 5 into it and it worked.

But I got a text message from AT&T telling me to get a new SIM card from them. The new SIM cards are needed when your area switches over to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and WiFi calling. to make use of the new features . Your phone will still work on the old SIM but you won't be able to use the new features until you get the new SIM card.

They could be working on converting your area over to VoLTE. The only thing you can do is to keep reporting the issue to ATT every few days (you have to keep on them). There could actually be issues with your local tower and ATT is not aware because people are not reporting it.

What happens if you drive across town (out of range of the tower at your house)? Are you still seeing the issues there on a different tower? If so the issue is not with the tower but with ATT's network in your area. If it only happens at your house, then the issue is local with the tower.
Click to expand...

My area already switched over to VoLTE a few weeks ago. I'll have to see how it behaves when I leave my area, that's for sure. It's still ongoing, but it seems peculiar that nobody in Seattle seems to have posted anything here in the last week it's been going on...

Cheers for the help.
 
I called AT&T this morning, and they say there's nothing wrong on their end... and that both my wife and I should exchange our phones at the Apple Store.

Well... now I'm at a loss....

I'm clearly not going to exchange our phones, but I may just pop to the nearest AT&T store and get new SIMs and try that. This whole thing is ridiculous.
 
WilliamG said:
I called AT&T this morning, and they say there's nothing wrong on their end... and that both my wife and I should exchange our phones at the Apple Store.

Well... now I'm at a loss....

I'm clearly not going to exchange our phones, but I may just pop to the nearest AT&T store and get new SIMs and try that. This whole thing is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Any reason why not? It could potentially be a problem with your phones. There's always iCloud or iTunes backups to get you up and running on the replacement phones.
 
WilliamG said:
You think an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 6 Plus both went bad at the same time?
Click to expand...

I'd bet my money on it being a problem with AT&T. They don't like taking accountability for their network issues. They will blame it in the SIM card or phone at first. They denied for three months that a tower was down in my area and then finally when I threatened to cancel they admitted it. After that it was escalated and fixed within a week!
 
ssl0408 said:
I'd bet my money on it being a problem with AT&T. They don't like taking accountability for their network issues. They will blame it in the SIM card or phone at first. They denied for three months that a tower was down in my area and then finally when I threatened to cancel they admitted it. After that it was escalated and fixed within a week!
Click to expand...

I agree. Got my new SIMs from a couple of miles down the road at the AT&T Store. No issues, by the way, with LTE there. Got my new SIM. Got near my home and suddenly started seeing the 4G->LTE->4G issue again.

*sigh*
 
WilliamG said:
I agree. Got my new SIMs from a couple of miles down the road at the AT&T Store. No issues, by the way, with LTE there. Got my new SIM. Got near my home and suddenly started seeing the 4G->LTE->4G issue again.

*sigh*
Click to expand...

Definitely points to a problem at the local tower and not the phone, sim or ATT's network.

You're going to have to just keep calling and telling them the above observations.
--Phones and SIM work correctly when away from your house; like at the ATT store.
--When you return to the area of your local tower that supports where you live the constant signal switching returns.
 
PsyOpWarlord said:
Definitely points to a problem at the local tower and not the phone, sim or ATT's network.

You're going to have to just keep calling and telling them the above observations.
--Phones and SIM work correctly when away from your house; like at the ATT store.
--When you return to the area of your local tower that supports where you live the constant signal switching returns.
Click to expand...

Yep working on it as we speak. Also, my neighbor just called and confirmed his HTC One (M8) is doing the same thing. He's even more irritated since he can't apparently disable his LTE!
 
I feel your pain

Hello. I don't have the answer, but Apple is working on a similar - - or perhaps the same - - problem for me. About 2 weeks ago my iPhone6 started draining about 5% per hour at idle. This would show up in Settings>General>Usage>Battery Usage as a very high standby usage even with the phone idle, typically about 80% of the total time. They exchanged the phone at the Austin, Texas Domain store. That did not fix the problem. I got a new sim from AT&T. That did not fix the problem. We came to Minneapolis for Christmas, and the Mall of America once more exchanged my phone, and it did not help. I got onto Apple Chat support and was passed to a senior analyst who worked with me off and on for most of a day. We determined that only when I was signed into iCloud, the massive drain happened. He checked what he could on my iCloud account, said at his level of diagnostics nothing showed up, so he said he was putting in a request for engineering to analyze the issue. I've not heard back, but that was only two days ago and this is Christmas. I have a 64GB and I know of at least one other person with the identical problem.

I restored the phone to 8.1.2, did not load any apps, signed into iCloud and let the phone idle. Here is the usage - just look at the high usage to standby proportion:

IMG_0003.PNG



Then all I did was sign out of iCloud, and here is the result - look at the minimal usage:


IMG_0006.PNG
 
You guys may want to create a new thread, as your iCloud issue is nothing to do with the issue in this thread. :p
 
WilliamG said:
You guys may want to create a new thread, as your iCloud issue is nothing to do with the issue in this thread. :p
Click to expand...

I have, but WilliamG have you tried logging out of iCloud to see if that will fix your problem? You may have the wrong casual theory, but just in case, I also did start a new thread. I was just offering this to you as a possible explanation for what you observed.
 
jdvoracek said:
I have, but WilliamG have you tried logging out of iCloud to see if that will fix your problem? You may have the wrong casual theory, but just in case, I also did start a new thread. I was just offering this to you as a possible explanation for what you observed.
Click to expand...

While I appreciate the help, I suggest you read the thread again. This is a tower issue in my area - confirmed by numerous neighbors of mine with and without iPhones. :)
 
WilliamG said:
While I appreciate the help, I suggest you read the thread again. This is a tower issue in my area - confirmed by numerous neighbors of mine with and without iPhones. :)
Click to expand...

So when you turn LTE off, your battery drain problem goes away?
 
WilliamG said:
I called AT&T this morning, and they say there's nothing wrong on their end... and that both my wife and I should exchange our phones at the Apple Store.

Well... now I'm at a loss....

I'm clearly not going to exchange our phones, but I may just pop to the nearest AT&T store and get new SIMs and try that. This whole thing is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Two out of the four iPhone 6+ phones I bought for the family experienced the issue, AT&T said replace them, Apple store agreed, problem solved. Now all our iP6+ phones are returning terrific battery run times. Better than when new.
 
iososx said:
Two out of the four iPhone 6+ phones I bought for the family experienced the issue, AT&T said replace them, Apple store agreed, problem solved. Now all our iP6+ phones are returning terrific battery run times. Better than when new.
Click to expand...

No. Your phones had other issues. Please, read the thread people! :D
 
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