How to check iPhone 5s battery condition?

[StevenH]

Hi, I recently bought a refurbished iPhone 5s off eBay. Since getting it I have found the battery life to be drain very very quickly despite only light usage. It also seems to take a long time to charge up, compared to my iPhone 4s.

I am not sure if it's iOS 9.2, or the phone's battery itself that is the problem. Is there any way to check the condition of the battery itself, so that I can eliminate one of the two possibilities?

Merry Christmas by the way!

 

[RadDave]

Hello Steven - as to the iOS installed, simply go into Settings -> About, and look half way down the right column, the version is listed. You might want to completely discharge your battery to recalibrate the monitoring system - directions HERE; then, Reset the device (hold down both the ON-OFF & HOME buttons until the Apple logo appears, release both and wait for a reboot).

There are a number of battery programs in the App Store - take a look - most will monitor the percentage charge and also chart how much time remains on battery to do a number of different tasks - download one or several (may be free); also, there is an app called Battery Health (screen shot below) that unlike the others will provide information on 'Battery Health' (i.e. change in battery storage, a mAh ratio, over time) and Cycles used - according to Apple, an iPad should maintain 80% of its charging capacity at 1000 cycles, an iPhone about half that amount of cycles - so w/ these apps, you should get some idea of your battery's condition.

There is a LOT of information on the web about iPhone battery issues, if you want to google - just several hits: LINK 1 LINK 2 - good luck! Dave
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[StevenH]

Thank you, amazing reply RadDave. Will let everyone know how it pans out.

 

[IWT]

Dave, that was outstandingly helpful. I've downloaded both the Battery Health app & the Battery Life Magic Pro (the latter is so cheap it seemed worth an experiment). These are very informative apps and, of course, your post was "amazing"

Ian

 

[RadDave]

Hi Steven & Ian - thanks for your kind comments - I've had a number of 'battery apps' on my iPads for a while, but Battery Health is fairly new to me and different from the others in looking at 'battery health' and cycles used - I believe that in older iOS versions, Apple did not allow developers to gather this information (although easy to do in OS X, either through the System Report or w/ an app - I'm using an OS X app by the same name, i.e. Battery Health, just updated to v. 5.1).


When I first ran the iPad app, my 1 year old iPad Air 2 reported an 86% 'battery health' & 223 cycles - I was somewhat surprised because my wife's 3 y/o iPad Mini had the same battery health rating w/ 717 cycles (she should be getting to that 80% level or less?); also my 2.8 y/o MBPro has a similar battery health as my iPad and about the same number of cycles. SO, I emailed the developer of the iPad app and his response is quoted below, for those interested. There seems to be some debate on 'how many' cycles it takes to lower the iPad's battery to 80% or less - well, my wife's Mini seems to be pointing to 1000 cycles, which I had suggested in my email - 500 cycles for the iPhone is generally accepted.

I'm planning to fully discharge my iPad (do that about every few months anyway), recharge which should re-calibrate the battery monitoring feature of the device, and then recheck my battery health - will report back. Dave

The health percentage is affected by your battery's age, but also by the number of cycles, and several other factors such as the typical ambient temperature, and the way you typically use your device. Specifically, if you routinely perform deep-discharges (running your battery down to empty, or near empty), that significantly shortens its life.

I have never heard the 1000 cycles @ 80% figure, where did you see that? My experience shows that most batteries hit 80% capacity at around 500 cycles, but again, it varies based on several different factors.

Yes, a full discharge for calibration might help. The fuel gauge chip is estimating battery health based on how much energy it sees in the battery. The occasional full discharge helps it calibrate itself in terms of both health and the actual charge level percentage estimate.

Finally, a word on charging power. If you've plugged in a 10W adapter, the app will rarely show charging with 10 watts of power, because much of the power is being used to power the device, and the remainder goes to the battery. You can prove this by switching from full screen brightness to minimum screen brightness, for example. You should see that at minimum screen brightness the charging power increases, because there's more power available to charge the battery.

Finally, depending on what stage the charger is in, it doesn't always use ALL the power available to it. When the battery is nearly full, you'll typically see very slow charging with very little power, which is how Lithium-Ion batteries are charged.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for purchasing Battery Health!

 

[chas_m]

The other thing to look at is whether background apps or unneeded location services could be draining things. I make a point of checking this after every major upgrade.

 

[Slydude]

Good point Chas. I often forget about that. Also look at any apps that continuously update their information. My wife and I had this problem a while back. Something was eating battery life on her phone. As far as we can tell the culprit was a weather app that was still in the tray but wasn't the active app.

 

[RadDave]

Good points from Chas_m & Slydude - these and many other suggestions are outlined in the two links given in my initial post - amazing how battery life can be easily exhausted on these devices. Dave

 

[StevenH]

So I did a full discharge and recharge last night.

So far it doesn't feel like much difference. Downloaded the battery Health app and it reported:

Battery health = 90%
Cycle count = 939
Max capacity = 1400mAh (90%)


Is this normal/good?

 

[chscag]

Your cycle count is approaching 1000 which is pretty good for an iPhone battery and it appears it's still 90% healthy. I would say the battery is operating normally. And by the way, Apple will replace it for a fee of $70.00 US (convert that to £) if you desire. Some of our members have replaced their iPhone battery DIY. Much cheaper that way and does not require a great deal of skill. Even I could possibly do it.

 

[RadDave]

So I did a full discharge and recharge last night.

So far it doesn't feel like much difference. Downloaded the battery Health app and it reported:

Battery health = 90%
Cycle count = 939
Max capacity = 1400mAh (90%)


Is this normal/good?

Hi again Steven - well, I'm rather surprised, i.e. the 'battery health' is great @ 90%! But you have nearly 1000 cycles - an iPhone battery's health should be at 80% or less by 500 cycles; so the health report is good but how much longer will the battery last? This is similar to what I posted before about my wife's 3 y/o Mini, i.e. 86% 'battery health' w/ nearly 800 cycles. SO, keep on using the device and make sure you do backups (I backup our three iDevices to iTunes and to iCloud, just in case). Dave

P.S. sorry if you already know the definition of a battery 'cycle', but one cycle is a complete discharge and recharge, which can occur w/ multiple partial discharges and recharges, e.g. if you let the battery go to 80% and recharge and do that 5 consecutive times, then that is only one cycle (quoted below a summary from Apple).

Charge your Apple lithium-ion battery whenever you want. There’s no need to let it discharge 100% before recharging. Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles. You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle. It could take several days to complete a cycle. The capacity of any type of battery will diminish after a certain amount of recharging. With lithium-ion batteries, the capacity diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle. Apple lithium-ion batteries are designed to hold at least 80% of their original capacity for a high number of charge cycles, which varies depending on the product.

 

[StevenH]

Thanks chscag and RadDave. I was surprised as well but it's just left me more perplexed as to why the battery life is so bad. I'm sure it is not normal because I am hardly using the phone - minimal web browsing and check email very minimally, brightness down. I dread to think what the battery life will be like on a day when I'm out, making calls, using maps etc.

Today I have usage is 4hrs 26min but my battery life is 33%.
My wife's iPhone 5c usage is 3hrs 30mins but battery life is 64%. My wife's phone is still on iOS 7 though. She has done no battery optimisations - all default settings.

I'm tempted to buy and fit a new battery, despite what battery health has reported.

But otherwise I don't know what else to do. Is it just iOS 9 then?

 

[chas_m]

As I said earlier, it certainly sounds to me like you have some services and background stuff running that is the real culprit here. Have you gone through and turned off everything that you don't actually need (for example, Bluetooth if you're not using a headset, Location Services except for mapping programs, Only Allow When in Use for other location-driven apps, and so forth?

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphone3g/tp/iphone-battery-life.htm

Read that, follow it, restart the iPhone, test it for a couple of days, report back.

 

[StevenH]

As I said earlier, it certainly sounds to me like you have some services and background stuff running that is the real culprit here. Have you gone through and turned off everything that you don't actually need (for example, Bluetooth if you're not using a headset, Location Services except for mapping programs, Only Allow When in Use for other location-driven apps, and so forth?

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphone3g/tp/iphone-battery-life.htm

Read that, follow it, restart the iPhone, test it for a couple of days, report back.

Thanks. I will try that next, but looking through the details of battery usage it doesn't look like much of it is background stuff. I will let everyone know how it goes anyway. Thanks again.

 

[RadDave]

Thanks chscag and RadDave. I was surprised as well but it's just left me more perplexed as to why the battery life is so bad. I'm sure it is not normal because I am hardly using the phone - minimal web browsing and check email very minimally, brightness down. I dread to think what the battery life will be like on a day when I'm out, making calls, using maps etc.

Today I have usage is 4hrs 26min but my battery life is 33%.
My wife's iPhone 5c usage is 3hrs 30mins but battery life is 64%. My wife's phone is still on iOS 7 though. She has done no battery optimisations - all default settings.

I'm tempted to buy and fit a new battery, despite what battery health has reported.

But otherwise I don't know what else to do. Is it just iOS 9 then?

Hi again Steven - for myself, I ran my iPad Air 2 battery below 10% and then did a recharge - the 'Battery Health' app reported the same, i.e. about 86% w/ 224 cycles - I cannot believe that my wife's 3 y/o iPad Mini's battery is higher than mine! Perplexing to say the least; of course, this brings up the issue as to whether this app is providing mis-information? Just saying - I'll be interested in seeing over the next few months whether 'bug fixes' will become available - good luck w/ your own quandary - if you are indeed at nearly 1000 cycles, your battery may 'poop out' at any time despite the health statistic - don't know. Dave

 

[StevenH]

Yes it's so difficult to know what's truly accurate. I'll try the software adjustments to start and then order another battery if no improvements.

You guys have been very generous with your time and so helpful. Thanks.

 

[RadDave]

Well, I've been rather irritated by this unexpected 'battery health' on my 1 y/o iPad Air 2 - SO, I downloaded Coconut Battery to my MBPro and first checked my nearly 3 y/o battery health on the laptop - about the same mid-80s rating, thus consistent - then went to the iPad and obtained the same mid-80s score as reported by the Battery Health app on the iPad - BOTTOM LINE - appears that my fairly young iPad battery is less healthy than my wife's older iPad (see pic below w/ double-arrow) - just loaded the same app on my wife's iPhone which reported a 100% battery health on a nearly year old device - THUS, those are my results - still baffled by my iPad's battery stats? Dave

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[StevenH]

Yes, still confused by them RadDave! Not sure how accurate this battery health app is...

On my side, I followed the tips on that link about reducing or turning off features which would improve battery life and it does seem to have had a good effect. Right now I have got 16% battery after 6hrs of use compared to 20% yesterday after 4hrs of use. Still disappointing to me because I would class my usage today as moderate for me, but better than nothing!

Still gonna change the actual battery to and see how that goes so will let you know how that turns out!
Thanks again. Hope you solve your iPad mystery!

 

[chas_m]

StevenH: thanks for being someone who pays attention! So glad that helped you!

 

[RadDave]

Yes, still confused by them RadDave! Not sure how accurate this battery health app is...

On my side, I followed the tips on that link about reducing or turning off features which would improve battery life and it does seem to have had a good effect. Right now I have got 16% battery after 6hrs of use compared to 20% yesterday after 4hrs of use. Still disappointing to me because I would class my usage today as moderate for me, but better than nothing!

Still gonna change the actual battery to and see how that goes so will let you know how that turns out!
Thanks again. Hope you solve your iPad mystery!

Hi again Steven - well not that concerned about my iPad Air 2 - have another year of AppleCare, so will just periodically run one of the two apps I own and if the battery health drops further in the next 6 months or so, I'll take the device into an Apple store for testing.

As to the apps, the Li-Ion's monitoring technology is providing the 'stats' to these apps, so should be fairly accurate - e.g. if I do a 'System Report' on my MBPro and also opened my 'Battery Health' (see pic below) - the current mAh rating (blue arrow) is about the same although a little better showing on the app; the 'health' is simply the percent ratio of the current amperage over the original value. As to 'Cycles', the same (red arrow) are reported - so, these apps are simply reading what is built into the battery monitoring feature(s) of these devices. Dave
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