Reboot to show real battery level?

[gordol]

iPhone 5 16GB, iOS 6.1.2 jailbroke. I charge the phone overnight.

Last couple of weeks, since I started working in my current employment, by the end of the day the phone is typically down to 60~70% charge left, no big deal. In the morning, after spending the overnight plugged into power, it shows 100% until I unplug it, where it immediately drops to 98%. If I reboot the phone, it shows 100%. I do not know what, if anything, changed coincidental to this issue starting. It may have been an update to an iTunes app store app or an app via Cydia, or neither.

I have done a battery calibration to no effect (let it run until it dies, charge until it's full). I have not done a device restore because I haven't had the time.

 

[sting7k]

Your jailbroken so wonky things can happen. Does it do this 100% of the time you take it off the charger? Does it exhibit any other strange battery behavior? Does this seem to adversely affect the battery life overall?

It's probably fine.

 

[Tanbam]

The battery indicator in the top bar is only a very rough estimate. Don't rely on it to be accurate. It might decide to call the battery 100% until it's well below that, then start falling more quickly after that.

It also behaves differently depending on whether it has just reached 100% while charging or if it has been sitting there for a long time - like charging overnight.

In general, I've found it to be more accurate after an overnight charge, but it will display 100% for much longer after a "quick" charge. Either way, the actual battery always behaves the same; regardless of what the top bar says.

My opinion is that the status bar battery percentage indicator is no more accurate than the battery icon. Don't worry about it, because its not a real number.

 

[gordol]

Your jailbroken so wonky things can happen. Does it do this 100% of the time you take it off the charger?

No, I just did a test - I used it enough to drop the battery by a few percent then plugged it into a computer to charge off of USB. When the indicator showed a full battery icon, I unplugged it and it stayed at 100%.

The charging device at home is an iHome P90 I got four or five years ago with a 30 pin dock, and a dock-to-Lightning adapter cable.

My iPad2, also iOS 6.1.2 jailbroke with the same Cydia apps, does not exhibit this behavior.

Does it exhibit any other strange battery behavior? Does this seem to adversely affect the battery life overall?

What other strange behavior? The actual usage appears reasonable to me.

 

[projectman]

I just discovered the same problem today...and I am not jb. I have noticed over the last few weeks that after a full night's recharge I will unplug and use it for very little as I travel to work. Once in my office (usually about 30 minutes after unplugging for the first time that day) it might be down as much as 5-10 percent. I will then plug it in, recharge back to 100% and then begin to use it. The usage seems to be less after that than it was immediately following unplugging it the first time that day. (hopefully you can track those details) Today it was down about 5% after 30 minutes of very little use so I rebooted the device and when it came back on it said 99%. I immediately went to a coworker who uses an iPhone 4S (same OS level as mine) and he tried the same thing. It jumped up 5% on his following the reboot. That seems strange. I am used to seeing a possible drop of ~1% following a reboot but never an increase. I realize the power did not actually increase but the indicator being off that much seems...wrong somehow.

 

[Peligro911]

Same here non jb started at 100 dropped real fast to about 96 or 95 I reboot bam back at 100 this happened on my iphone 4 5.1.1 also but more often on my 5 recently


Sent from my iPhone 5 from a galaxy far far away (in the USA ) using Tapatalk !

 

[sj-performance]

Same here non jb started at 100 dropped real fast to about 96 or 95 I reboot bam back at 100 this happened on my iphone 4 5.1.1 also but more often on my 5 recently


Sent from my iPhone 5 from a galaxy far far away (in the USA ) using Tapatalk !

Exactly my case...noticed this more on my 5 then when I had the 4S


Sent from iPhone5 via Tapatalk

 

[gordol]

The battery indicator in the top bar is only a very rough estimate. Don't rely on it to be accurate. It might decide to call the battery 100% until it's well below that, then start falling more quickly after that.

It also behaves differently depending on whether it has just reached 100% while charging or if it has been sitting there for a long time - like charging overnight.

In general, I've found it to be more accurate after an overnight charge, but it will display 100% for much longer after a "quick" charge.

Which, as I said, is not what is happening. I'm seeing the exact opposite. After an overnight charge, it drops to 98 IMMEDIATELY. Not "quickly", but the instant I unplug it.

My ~4 year old iPod Touch does that, only to a lower number. But that device is old and used enough that the battery may be legitimately dying. The iPhone was new-in-the-box when I got it last month, I saw the Verizon sales guy break the seal.

 

[kch50428]

My Verizon iPhone 4S does this all the time. I'm not concerned with it. Nature of the beast.

 

[Tanbam]

I mentioned earlier that the battery indicator on the status bar is not accurate. You should not make any assumptions based off of it.

When you charge your battery to 100%, that's all it will take. The battery will stop charging.

When you unplug your phone, you are immediately less than 100% because you have used some if the energy. If you've used your phone for 10 minutes and it still says 100%, does that really make any sense?

I have seen two distinct modes for the status bar battery meter. One is when the phone is left on the charger long after it has charged, and one that is pulled off the charger shortly after it hits 100%. Regardless of what the false status bar indicator displays, they both have the same amount of energy in the battery.

When it is in the "stay at 100% for a long time mode, the indicator does not go below the 100% until it is down to an actual capacity of around 93% as reported by the battery. After that, it makes up the difference and starts dropping faster than the actual capacity until they match more closely when the battery is low.

When it is in the "pulled it off the charger in the morning" mode, the status bar indicator matches the actual capacity much more closely throughout the entire range - though it still reads higher than it should until the battery is getting low. This also means that it doesn't say 100% very long - because you're using the battery!

These false indications in both modes is what gives one the impression that the battery drains faster when it is lower, but it is not the real case.

In other words, don't worry about the status bar battery indicator. If it doesn't seem accurate enough to you, run the phone until the battery dies and then let to recharge back to 100% to recalibrate and see if you like it better. It won't make your battery run any longer, though.

 

[Tanbam]

Imagine two different car models that both have equal capacity fuel tanks and identical mileage and range.

Car A's fuel indicator stays at full and doesn't move for the first 100 miles. Car B's fuel indicator starts going down immediately and is down to 3/4 at 100 miles. Both cars can go 400 miles on a single tank of gas. Both cars show 1/4 tank at 300 miles.

Which fuel indicator would you rather use? The one that stays full longer, or the one that more accurately reflects the actual level?

 

[projectman]

Imagine two different car models that both have equal capacity fuel tanks and identical mileage and range.

Car A's fuel indicator stays at full and doesn't move for the first 100 miles. Car B's fuel indicator starts going down immediately and is down to 3/4 at 100 miles. Both cars can go 400 miles on a single tank of gas. Both cars show 1/4 tank at 300 miles.

Which fuel indicator would you rather use? The one that stays full longer, or the one that more accurately reflects the actual level?

Sure, that all makes sense. I did not realize that the battery indicator was not a precision tool. Expectations are everything I guess.

 

[kch50428]

Which fuel indicator would you rather use? The one that stays full longer, or the one that more accurately reflects the actual level?

The one that most accurately reflects the actual level at the point when that level truly maters - when it's low.

 

[gordol]

Imagine two different car models that both have equal capacity fuel tanks and identical mileage and range.

Car A's fuel indicator stays at full and doesn't move for the first 100 miles. Car B's fuel indicator starts going down immediately and is down to 3/4 at 100 miles. Both cars can go 400 miles on a single tank of gas. Both cars show 1/4 tank at 300 miles.

Which fuel indicator would you rather use? The one that stays full longer, or the one that more accurately reflects the actual level?

Taking that analogy and applying it to this specific situation, the gas gauge in the car should not drop by 2% the instant you take the fuel nozzle out of the fill tube.

When unplugging from the charger, the battery level is still at 100% and will remain there in reality for a few microseconds. Indicator-wise, the power drop should not be measurable for a few seconds at worst, and depending on whether I'm actively using it or just putting the phone in to its holster, it may not even be a measurable drop for up to an hour. Just like the fuel use in the car is not a measurable amount until you've actually driven it a few miles, depending on the tank capacity and engine efficiency.

 

[sting7k]

The battery meter may not be working correctly. The iPhone will let some charge bleed off while sitting at 100% and the charge back to 100%. There are times I pick mine up and it has the plug symbol but says 99% or it says 100% but still has the lightning bolt on the battery icon.

You could be taking it off the charger right while it is in this minor battery depletion but the meter is now reflecting the change until you actually unplug it. Then on reboot when the meter is active again it's reading it back at 100%.

Some days mine stays at 100% for a good while even after using it for 15 minutes in the morning and even then when I get to work it's still at 100%. Some days it drops to 99 or 98 after just a minute or so.

 

[DJLILM]

I been having problem with my 4s.


Sent from my iPhone4s using Tapatalk

 

[Tanbam]

Taking that analogy and applying it to this specific situation, the gas gauge in the car should not drop by 2% the instant you take the fuel nozzle out of the fill tube.

When unplugging from the charger, the battery level is still at 100% and will remain there in reality for a few microseconds. Indicator-wise, the power drop should not be measurable for a few seconds at worst, and depending on whether I'm actively using it or just putting the phone in to its holster, it may not even be a measurable drop for up to an hour. Just like the fuel use in the car is not a measurable amount until you've actually driven it a few miles, depending on the tank capacity and engine efficiency.

If I had a fuel tank that was accurate enough and was not subject to variations due to slope or acceleration, then yes, I'd expect it to immediately drop the moment that I started the engine - since fuel would be draining out the tank the moment that the engine starts. You can't say that it's "not a measurable amount" simply because the meter that you use is not accurate or sensitive enough.

Technically, the battery level is <100% the instant that you remove it from the charger -- and even less a few microseconds later...

Which goes back to my original point - the status bar indicator is not sensitive or accurate enough to use for anything more than a rough guess. In fact, I'd say that it's inaccuracy is +/- 5%, especially at the top end.

When was the last time that you've completely discharged the battery to allow the both the battery's and the OS's individual monitoring systems to sync up? If you don't do a calibration once in a while, the delta between the two can get large enough to start showing up.