[Closed] Iphone switching off in cold

It's got to be worth trying a new battery.

I have the same generation of SE. It did the same, and yes, a new battery made it better.

Even a fresh battery won't last in minus temps. I had the misfortune to need to call upon mountain rescue in freezing temperatures in brecon a few years back. My phone had 40% battery at the time of the call and I had a fully charged spare in my pack - sorted I thought. Between them we managed about 12 minutes of talk time before they died - the spare that was charged before the walk read 25% at the point it was plugged in.

I now have a rugged phone with 3 times the battery life and keep it next to body heat when out in proper cold!

Thanks, I realise this makes me sound like I belong in the last millennium but not done a battery replacement before...do I need an Apple Authorized repairer or will any old high street phone repairer suffice?

A replacement battery will help.
My old iPhones used to do it when I snowboarded, I got a charger case and left a GPS app running, meant that the phone didn’t get cold and the battery level stayed high.

New battery will sort it. I did a few when we were in iPhone 4/5/se in our family. Not too hard to do if a bit fiddly. Can buy bits on Amazon wherever- new battery and all the tools. Or take it somewhere and pay someone to do it. Not an apple store though. Unless you like spending money

Alternative would be a case with battery pack. Had o r of those once for a 6 I think.
Last few years iPhones seem much better battery wise. This nearly 2 year old xr is showing 88% capacity

Any guy down the high street will do it for you, usually while you wait or go round the shops for 20 mins. Cost should be about £20-£30, usually you can haggle them down a fiver if you mention the name of the shop down the road, if you're confident doing so.

Bear in mind that you usually cannot buy genuine apple spare parts (no matter what they might have printed on the package) so the quality of your new battery may not match the original.

Not an apple store though. Unless you like spending money

Not terribly expensive to get apple to do it. I've had some terrible aftermarket batteries so proprietary ones would have to be very expensive for me to look elsewhere now.

I would find out the cost from Apple and see if that is palatable (£60 rings a bell). I've heard/seen some horror stories from 'bloke on the high street, repairs, some are no doubt great but it is a bit of a lottery (both parts and skills). Apple have announced they are going to make parts available to everyone under pressure from the right to repair movement in the US, but I don't think that has started yet.

It’s £49 to get Apple to do it, I’d do that tbh.

You might also get lucky and just get handed a new phone if they don’t have a battery in stock (the SE might be a bit old for that now though).

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/iphone/repair/service/battery-power

Thanks, I booked an apple repair to be sent off online as my nearest Apple authorised repairer wouldn't touch it as it's too old...despite it just being 4 years old, and otherwise perfectly fine. Disposable modern toss world gone mad. Thanks for the advice.

Who makes the best 'rugged' Extrem `tm conditions phones for proper adventure usage then, is this even a thing?

Same phone. It currently (again) needs a new battery as it runs flat from random percentages shown (ie can say 23% and will last a few minutes of use if I’m lucky.

In a cold snap it will discharge from say 10% in 3 seconds or less. Sometimes I get very thin green and red lines show on a black screen as it shuts off.

I’ve changed the battery in it once before so can again. Not a big job. Although battery prices have seemingly risen a lot in a few years? About double what I paid for my 5s batteries. A quick look on local marketplace and I can see a minty boxed 64gb for £50. Yet I’m going to spend £30 on a battery for my 32GB? Mentalism.

Yeah...there's something not right with the cold weather performance of these models..Googling it brings up a fair few thousand similar stories. I can run up a mountain on full charge from start with the phone in a pocket trying to keep it warm, Strava running background, when I finish the run its got cold enough to immediately shut down the moment I enter from the lock screen. Its doing this at even 2-3'c...if it were minus 20-30'c I'd understand but that's pathetic. At normal room temps it operates 100% as normal.

endoverend
Full Member

Yeah…there’s something not right with the cold weather performance of these models..Googling it brings up a fair few thousand similar stories. I can run up a mountain on full charge from start with the phone in a pocket trying to keep it warm, Strava running background, when I finish the run its got cold enough to immediately shut down the moment I enter from the lock screen. Its doing this at even 2-3’c…if it were minus 20-30’c I’d understand but that’s pathetic. At normal room temps it operates 100% as normal.

i think you've just got a failing battery tbh, apple don't Think Different when it comes to batteries, they're just normal lithium polymer cells. Switching off at random percentages is a common way they fail, and they perform generally worse in cold weather.

Disposable modern toss world gone mad.

Except it hasn’t gone mad, because you’re getting it repaired by the manufacturer for a reasonable(ish) price. Which arguably isn’t in their interests as they’d rather you bought a new one.

So a question then, if it was a failing cell (or 'cells', I have no idea how this voodoo works), which it appears it could be - would this show up on the battery health percentage screen accessible in settings..mine shows 98%, or is that monitoring some other aspect of battery performance.

Seems some of you guys are quite familiar with this sort of technical thing as I guess it's similar to EBike, or EV performance...not quite there yet, but its interesting knowledge.

My old iPhones used to do it when I snowboarded, I got a charger case and left a GPS app running, meant that the phone didn’t get cold and the battery level stayed high.

Just open STW when not logged in - whatever the ads do will soon heat it up...

Having used an iPhone happily at -25C, I’d put this down to a knackered battery

endoverend
Full Member

So a question then, if it was a failing cell (or ‘cells’, I have no idea how this voodoo works), which it appears it could be – would this show up on the battery health percentage screen accessible in settings..mine shows 98%, or is that monitoring some other aspect of battery performance.

Seems some of you guys are quite familiar with this sort of technical thing as I guess it’s similar to EBike, or EV performance…not quite there yet, but its interesting knowledge.

The health rating is just an estimate based on a few factors, the estimated capacity compared to new, the number of charge cycles, how many fast charges it's done etc etc. It doesn't necessarily cover every possible problem that can occur.

The bottom line is, 4 years is a good innings for a phone battery.

Bear in mind that you usually cannot buy genuine apple spare parts

Also, bear in mind that Apple don’t make batteries, or the screens, or many other components. What is important is that the battery is a genuine product from a reputable source, there are lots of hooky ones out there that don’t have the capacity of the original, which is one reason for getting a shop to fit it, they should be getting components from a reliable source.

Even genuine parts can be a problem, there were a spate of fires involving Apple laptops some years ago, and the batteries were all made by Sony…

Of course, lots of people blamed Apple regardless.

The bottom line is, 4 years is a good innings for a phone battery.

Absolutely, although I managed to get five years out of my old iPhone 6+, but I’m not a particularly heavy user.