Hi MacRumors,
So, I got my original iPhone 5 on launch day, but a year ago got a replacement phone under AppleCare due to a battery and screen glitch. Everything has been working fine since and I updated to 8.3 the day it came out. A couple of days ago, however, I noticed my phone had turned itself off unexpectedly even though it had 50% of its battery left. I figured it may have been because it was a bit chilly outside, so I plugged it in once I was in my car and everything seemed fine.
Yesterday, however, my phone would turn itself off seemingly at random at least three times despite having 80-99% of its battery life. Once, it was fully charged and plugged in, and it turned itself off immediately after I unplugged it. I had to plug it in and wait a while to get it to start up again. The same problem was persisting today, so I did a Firmware restore which seemed to be successful. I had my phone on airplane mode and it was playing music fine, but after I turned it on data and wi-fi for more than five minutes it turned off and has been refusing to turn on. Now, only when it's plugged in and I try turning it on do I get the "low battery" screen, despite being plugged in for more than an hour. Occasionally, the Apple logo will appear as if it's starting up, but then it quickly vanishes and goes blank again.
Since I have had 8.3 for a while and did a firmware update, my hunch is that the problem is hardware. But does it make sense for the battery to degrade so quickly? Could it be anything else? I no longer have AppleCare and live in a city with no Apple Stores, so I'll probably have to go to a third party phone repair shop and I want to make sure that replacing the battery will actually be the solution before I proceed any further. I've been hoping my phone would turn on briefly so I could check the battery health via iBackupBot, but now it's refusing to go on even when plugged in.
Thanks for any help!
So, I got my original iPhone 5 on launch day, but a year ago got a replacement phone under AppleCare due to a battery and screen glitch. Everything has been working fine since and I updated to 8.3 the day it came out. A couple of days ago, however, I noticed my phone had turned itself off unexpectedly even though it had 50% of its battery left. I figured it may have been because it was a bit chilly outside, so I plugged it in once I was in my car and everything seemed fine.
Yesterday, however, my phone would turn itself off seemingly at random at least three times despite having 80-99% of its battery life. Once, it was fully charged and plugged in, and it turned itself off immediately after I unplugged it. I had to plug it in and wait a while to get it to start up again. The same problem was persisting today, so I did a Firmware restore which seemed to be successful. I had my phone on airplane mode and it was playing music fine, but after I turned it on data and wi-fi for more than five minutes it turned off and has been refusing to turn on. Now, only when it's plugged in and I try turning it on do I get the "low battery" screen, despite being plugged in for more than an hour. Occasionally, the Apple logo will appear as if it's starting up, but then it quickly vanishes and goes blank again.
Since I have had 8.3 for a while and did a firmware update, my hunch is that the problem is hardware. But does it make sense for the battery to degrade so quickly? Could it be anything else? I no longer have AppleCare and live in a city with no Apple Stores, so I'll probably have to go to a third party phone repair shop and I want to make sure that replacing the battery will actually be the solution before I proceed any further. I've been hoping my phone would turn on briefly so I could check the battery health via iBackupBot, but now it's refusing to go on even when plugged in.
Thanks for any help!
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