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2 nasty bugs are destroying iPhone battery life

By Rob Price
iphone battery life
Karlis Dambrans/Flickr (CC)
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Is your iPhone battery draining superfast or switching off early? Well, you're not alone.

Two serious problems are destroying iPhone battery life.

First, a problem with some batteries in the iPhone 6s is making them switch off despite supposedly having plenty of battery left.

And a bug in a recent iOS 10 update is also making iPhone batteries empty much faster than normal.

Apple has actually acknowledged the problem with iPhone 6s batteries. The company claims it affects only handsets sold from September 2015 to October 2015 (when the device first launched) and is offering free battery replacements to people who bought iPhones in that time frame. Affected users are seeing their phone switch off at random, even when the battery meter indicates plenty of charge.

It's unclear exactly how many people are affected — Apple says it's only a "very small number," though anecdotally it seems to be relatively widespread.

A Chinese government watchdog isn't happy with Apple's response on the issue so far. It claims the issue is also affecting the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and the iPhone 6s Plus, Quartz reports, despite Apple's assertions to the contrary.

An Apple representative could not immediately provide Business Insider with clarification on these claims — and it's unclear whether they relate to the second battery problem that is afflicting iPhone owners.

tim cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook.  Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

After updating to iOS 10.1.1 in October, many users are reporting that their batteries are draining unnaturally quickly and switching off when their phone says it still has about 30% of its charge left.

As an apparent software bug, this should be fixable with a future software update — but for now it's immensely frustrating for some iPhone users. Some users have turned to external battery packs to keep their phones charged.

(Apple also did not comment on when a potential fix might arrive.)

The iPhone 6s bug is more troubling, as it necessitates a hardware fix. Apple gives instructions on how you can check its website to see whether you're affected and how to return your phone if so.

Either of these problems would be a real pain. Combined, they're a major headache for users — and Apple.

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Reporter Rob Price sitting at a table
Rob Price
Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits.— The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'— App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbot— Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth— Private islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin— 'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.— Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billions— Gaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreams— A drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.
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