iPhone 5 battery indicator erratic

moloes

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Over the last week and since updating to iOS 7.0.3 I have noticed my battery has been lingering on certain percentages longer than others percentages. It was dropping quicker than normal on the percentages and then when it lets say get to 60% it will linger there for 10 or more minutes and then continues to go down.

When it got to 25% it dropped suddenly to 20%. I drained my battery completely for the 3rd time and it spent about 15 minutes on 1% while I was playing GTA on with the screen brightness on full.

Is it best for me to restore from backup?

Advice much appreciated.

Thank you.


Sent from my iPhone 5 32Gb white.
 

BreakingKayfabe

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I don't think it has much to do with the battery as it does what the OS is sensing. I've always had erratic battery display percentages. Right now my 5S indicates 80% and a reboot made it 83%. I don't know that restoring from a backup will be that helpful. You could always just restore as new and see how your problem may or may not be solved. If not, you can always just restore the backup over again anyway.
 

dictoresno

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yea every iphone ive owned, this has been the case. some days it will stay on 100% hor hours, other times it drops to 99% the minute i unplug it.

what i have found is that when rebooted after unplugging, the battery indicator is closer to true. so i make it a habit to reboot every time i unplug from 100%. if you want, you can do a DFU restore and set it up as new. but i doubt it will change things in the long run.
 

moloes

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I've had iPhones since 2010 and never come across this before where it hangs on a percentage for ages and then starts dropping through the percentages quick then it will stick at another percentage. The drop from 24 to 20 within a second was when I noticed the problem was worse than I first thought. I reset the settings and the percentage went from 90 to 95. Since it's been ok.

I believe the battery is still giving me the same capacity it's just the percentage indicator that's gone mental. I will monitor it since resetting the settings, if it continues I will reset the phone from new.

The easy fix is to turn percentage off like suggested.

Thanks for the advice chaps.
 

moloes

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Since iOS 7.0.3 I believe my battery indicator has developed a problem. First I noticed the percentages were dropping in large increments while the phone was in standby and in use. My indicator was showing 82% then suddenly dropped to 75% then it dropped to 73% at normal pace to then hang at 73 for 15 mins to then start dropping quickly again.



It became more apparent when the battery indicator was on 52% before I started videoing and 2:30 mins into recording a video the 20% low battery warning popped up on my screen. Then another minute later it displayed the 10% warning. 15 mins after finishing the video my percentage was on 7 and when I plugged it in to charge and the battery jumped to 42% instantly.



A week ago I restored from back up and reset all settings but this happened again today, so now I have restored my phone from iTunes in DFU mode as a new device not from backup. Hopefully this works because I am confident my battery is ok it's the battery indicator software at fault. I still believe it could be iOS 7.0.3. I will update when I have had a few days of charge cycles and usage.
 

kreestole

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I'm having a similar issue all of a sudden. My battery just dropped erratically- 50% to 36% after sending a couple picture messages on wifi. Then in a couple minutes it dropped to 28%. Yesterday it took hours to drop from 7% to 2%. I plug it in and it'll instantly jump 5-10%. I'd love to hear whether the fresh retire helps.
 

moloes

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Regrettably the restore from DFU mode and start as new phone didn't work. My battery is still all over the place. I have an appointment at the Genius Bar bar but my phone is out of warranty, so if I require a replacement it's going to cost. Now my phone is jumping from 30% to 17% then when I plug it in it going back to 30%. Also now it's turning off at 8% 6%, this is a 1st for me.

I don't want to go to the Genius Bar for them to say I need to replace my phone at a cost to only find out its a bug with iOS 7.0.3.
 

dictoresno

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i think it may be a bug with 7.0.3. mine isnt all over the place, but i noticed it has jumped/skipped percentages and sometimes drains fast. im gonna wait for the next update before i start assuming its hardware.
 

kreestole

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Now that you mention it, mine had turned off twice on me at above 15%. Today I was sending a text message and my phone randomly rebooted. I took my phone off the charger at 97% 5 mins ago and now it says 99%. I hope this is a software thing.
 

Peligro911

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Regrettably the restore from DFU mode and start as new phone didn't work. My battery is still all over the place. I have an appointment at the Genius Bar bar but my phone is out of warranty, so if I require a replacement it's going to cost. Now my phone is jumping from 30% to 17% then when I plug it in it going back to 30%. Also now it's turning off at 8% 6%, this is a 1st for me.

I don't want to go to the Genius Bar for them to say I need to replace my phone at a cost to only find out its a bug with iOS 7.0.3.

What model phone do you have ?
If it needs a battery it's pretty easy to swap yourself assuming it's a 4 or 4s I would try that before ditching the phone .. Seems like a strange issue and for it to drop that fast in chunks I think you need a new battery
Check amazon you can get one for 5 bucks
 

moloes

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What model phone do you have ?
If it needs a battery it's pretty easy to swap yourself assuming it's a 4 or 4s I would try that before ditching the phone .. Seems like a strange issue and for it to drop that fast in chunks I think you need a new battery
Check amazon you can get one for 5 bucks

iPhone 5, it is my 3rd replacement because my previous 2 iPhone 5 since launch had camera issues and apple replaced them. I will still go to apple Genius Bar Friday and see what they say. I will mention that if they think its hardware and I pay to replace the phone and it turns out to be the recent update I will not be a happy chappy.

If it is the recent update I would have expected more people to be suffering from this issue. Trust it to happen when my phone is just over its warranty.

Ps thanks for the advice about replacing battery. I believe apple charge just under ?60 so I might let them do it is necessary.

If anyone else is suffering from this problem please comment as I'm hoping its more wide spread than originally thought.
 

sting7k

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Try resetting the battery meter.

Run it until the phone shuts off. Then charge all the way using the wall adapter.
 

jaleelhamid

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yea every iphone ive owned, this has been the case. some days it will stay on 100% hor hours, other times it drops to 99% the minute i unplug it.

what i have found is that when rebooted after unplugging, the battery indicator is closer to true. so i make it a habit to reboot every time i unplug from 100%. if you want, you can do a DFU restore and set it up as new. but i doubt it will change things in the long run.

So once it gets fully charged than reboot it? Whats the best way to reboot it
 

moloes

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I have performed a few fully discharge cycles and then fully charge the phone to 100% by the adaptor, especially since I noticed my battery was going crazy. I'm still booked in at the Genius Bar Friday, so hopefully apples diagnostics will pin point the problem as it's currently very odd behaviour considering I have restored the device as new about 3 times in 3 days and ran battery cycles. Also I have restored the phone as new without putting any apps on the phone apart from the ones that come with iOS with location services and app refresh off but still the problem exists.

I still believe its iOS 7.0.3.
 

kreestole

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I'm having the same issue on my 5, running 7.0.3. Just now I plugged my phone in and it jumped from 16% to 24%. I have done quite a few full discharge cycles as well. I also tried turning the phone off and on right after I unplug it in the morning.
 

EeZz

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You're not alone pal... I was hesitant on updating to ios 7 at all before they fixed all the bugs first. Here I am 3 updates later and the problems are getting way worse. Erratic battery level readings, charging, powering off, touch screen problems,retina display looks more like retinal display and the list goes on and on. Sad to say but our new Steve Jobs are a bunch of Hand Jobs...
 

moloes

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My battery was adequate and showing normal percentages before iOS 7.0.3

I will see what Apple have to say tomorrow when I go to the Genius Bar.
One thing that is bugging is that the warranty is active 12 months from when you got your first iPhone 5. My current iPhone 5 is my third that was my replacement at the apple store in February. However if it turns out to be hardware it looks like I will still need to pay for any work or replacement carried out. I would expect a battery to last longer than 12 month if that's the outcome.
 

tr1ad

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my i5 is also off of warranty and i get horrendous battery life, i'm going to change the battery out
 

moloes

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I have been to the Genius Bar at apple and they ran a dianostic check on my battery and it was showing very low power readings and possible fault with the battery charging. They wasn't 100% confident that the problem was the battery but the battery would benifit from being replaced. For the sake of ?55 and that the iphone 5 was nearly a year old I thought it would be best to replace the battery even If it turns out to be the recent iOS causing the issues at least I now have a new battery now.



So far the battery is going down the percentages at almost the normal rate but I have only discharged it and charged it fully once since the battery was fitted yesterday. I am still 50/50 if it was the battery or iOS 7.0.3.
 

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