iPhone 3Gs battery meter problem (jumping from 30% to 'plug into power' suddenly)

[the-sandman]

I've searched around for this specific problem but haven't seen any solution.

Basically it seems the battery meter on my 3Gs is way off, but only when i connect my iPhone to my Mac. It'll start syncing, then whatever capacity the battery has, will disappear and bring up the 'connect to power screen' with the empty battery filling the screen. It then rakes up to 30 mins to go from that screen to turning back on.

This has now happened 4 times, all when connecting to my Mac, connecting to a wall charger doesn't have this happen.

I don't know what the issue is, but it means i can't sync my phone anymore as the sync cancels as the phone turns off!

 

[Vegeta-san]

I'm having the SAME issues man....For me, it all started a week ago when I got a new vehicle with built in bluetooth and decided to start leaving the bluetooth on my 3GS on 24/7.....It sucks man. I've tried recalibrating too. Not working.

 

[bruinsrme]

Are you using the same cable with the computer and wall charger? If so try another cable with the computer

 

[Smog]

I've had the same problems a few times. once it went from 60% to 80%, the next day it went from 29% to flat.

I just charged it full, let it run fully flat again and it hasn't done it for about a month now

 

[Jumpie]

Yesterday, mine went from 32%, then jumped to 84%. I don't get it.

 

[the-sandman]

Are you using the same cable with the computer and wall charger? If so try another cable with the computer

I'm using different cables for both and have swapped them round and everything, sometimes putting the iPhone on the wall charger it suddenly jumps to 100%, and then won't charge! I'm now really not trusting what the meter is telling me and i really have no idea how much charge the battery is actually holding anymore!

At least i know i'm not the only one with this issue.

 

[candychunk]

yes, you're not the only one...

that's actually the reason why i spent my whole sunday figuring out what's wrong with my phone..

i just got my 3gs btw 2 days ago!!! yesterday, i charged it and it just stayed to 97%, after using it almost the whole day, the meter read the same thing, no difference! i was like, there must be something wrong with this phone.. i turned it off, then on... to no avail, the meter read 6%!

so i tried charging it, didnt change... turned it off.. it changed... then i read online to calibrate the battery.. so i drained it... after soooo many hours, my phone was still at 1%!!! i then tried to restore it to factory settings, deleting everything because i figured there might be something wrong with my file or a corrupted one from the old back up file... my phone would not power up!!!

so i decided to turn it off completely, left it charging for 2 hours... had enough power to restore to factory setting. now it's working great! phew! i thought i was gonna make another long trip to the apple store


in short, try to drain ur battery to "calibrate" it, leave it for at least 2 hours... if that didnt work, restore it to factory settings... that worked for me

 

[terraphantm]

This happened to me the other day while on campus. It was at 53% if I remember correctly, and then all of a sudden the phone shut off and I couldn't turn it back on. Plugging it in once I got home got it at the empty battery screen. It's been a few days and it seems to have fixed itself, but I'll be keeping my eye on it.

 

[thelatinist]

Have you tried calibrating your battery? All of these problems seem like they might be fixed by battery calibration...