iPhone battery throttling

[Wadeski]

hey PH collective. Ever since the last big iPhone software update (March 5th, I think it was 17.4), my wife and my iPhone 13 take FOREVER to charge up, and also deplete the battery very quickly.

They are barely 2 years old, and are fully supported models. We have also tried a few different chargers to make sure it's not hardware. My suspicion is Apple are throttling the battery in the way the do to "protect older devices" (and totally not at all to make you upgrade every 2 years by reducing the user experience quality...), but I am very willing to be wrong.

Is there any way to manage this in advanced settings? The maximum capacity in the Battery Health settings is 86%, and it is set up for optimized charging.

[Shiv_P]

86% is quite poor for a 2 year old phone

Turn off optimised charging and see if that stops the throttling, typically it will turn of fast charging to extend battery longevity whislt using this

As an aside this is another reason I will never buy an iphone!

[Ham_and_Jam]

Im on the latest update on a similar age phone and battery life, and haven’t noticed any ‘throttling’.

It will pause the charging at various points if it thinks the battery will benefit, i.e. its your usual sleep time etc.

Have you checked the battery app to see any pauses. Mine looks like this —->



You can see the battery stopped charging for a few hours in the early morning, then finished to 100% just before I normally wake up.

[Wadeski]

I wonder if that has something to do with it - our little one has been very wakeful at night so I am unplugging my phone to go put him back to sleep, then plugging it in later.

I'll try turning off the optimized charging and see if it improves.

[tim0409]

Wadeski said:

My suspicion is Apple are throttling the battery in the way the do to "protect older devices" (and totally not at all to make you upgrade every 2 years by reducing the user experience quality...), but I am very willing to be wrong.

That is literally the last thing on earth that will be the cause. Apple have already been caught out for that and are facing a $500 million settlement for those users affected. It will be battery optimization as previously mentioned.

[Chrisgr31]

My iPhone 14 Pro has suddenly stopped making it through the day on a single charge.

Battery life is apparently 86%

[119]

Wadeski said:

I wonder if that has something to do with it - our little one has been very wakeful at night so I am unplugging my phone to go put him back to sleep, then plugging it in later.

I'll try turning off the optimized charging and see if it improves.

Out of interest, why do you need your phone to settle him?

[Spare tyre]

Chrisgr31 said:

My iPhone 14 Pro has suddenly stopped making it through the day on a single charge.

Battery life is apparently 86%

Are you using it in brighter conditions? This time of year we get sun on the sofa where I sit, they phone has to go really bright to compensate

[Chrisgr31]

Spare tyre said:

Are you using it in brighter conditions? This time of year we get sun on the sofa where I sit, they phone has to go really bright to compensate

Sun? What’s that! Nope no noticeable change in weather.

I have also realised that my Apple Watch is now warning me of battery going flat towards the end of the day. That had a software upgrade recently.

As someone said it’s unlikely that it would be deliberate but wonder if there is something in the software updates using more power.

[r3g]

Chrisgr31 said:

Spare tyre said:

Are you using it in brighter conditions? This time of year we get sun on the sofa where I sit, they phone has to go really bright to compensate

Sun? What’s that! Nope no noticeable change in weather.

I have also realised that my Apple Watch is now warning me of battery going flat towards the end of the day. That had a software upgrade recently.

As someone said it’s unlikely that it would be deliberate but wonder if there is something in the software updates using more power.

Mine is doing the same since last update. Battery used to last for 2 days with my use but now it's basically flat at the end of a single day. The reddits are full of people with exactly the same issue. Apple are throttling them, obviously, but won't admit to it. They want people to buy new.

[pip t]

They're very open about this now, on the iPhone at least, because of the previous lawsuit.

When your battery ages beyond a certain point (I believe it's 80% Battery Health but can't remember) the device will begin to throttle the processor to reduce demand on the battery. However, a new setting will also be present in the battery section of settings to allow you to turn this behaviour off. This may result in the device crashing if the system makes demands on the battery that it can no longer respond to, but it's up to you whether you prefer the risk of this to the system slowing a little.

Generally once the battery health is below around 85% it's a good idea to get a new battery for it....Apple stores will swap them for a pretty reasonable price, which should restore the functionality to as good as new.

In terms of battery life itself, yes, the new update may be causing more power draw reducing battery life, or may have introduced something that affects certain apps causing the same. It won't be a deliberate act on Apple's part though....they got caught badly for it before, they're highly unlikely to pull the same trick twice...

[Wadeski]

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