If your iPhone has been acting weird, shutting off on its own, even when it had 15 or 30% battery left, you should know that this is not new, and you’re not alone. Users have been reporting this issue on a wide scale ever since iOS 9 came out. And a lot of people are experiencing this even today, in 2016.
If your iPhone has been shutting itself off, even when you clearly have a reasonable amount of battery left, try the following fixes.
0. Check If Your iPhone Is Eligible For Replacement Program
Turns out, a large number of population wasn’t just imagining this problem. After a lot of vocal uproar on the internet, Apple has officially acknowledged the unexpected shut down and reboot problem – at least for a particular iPhone made in a particular batch. If you’re using an iPhone 6s that was manufactured between September and October 2015, you’re eligible for Apple’s replacement program.
You can find out if your device qualifies by punching in the serial number in this link. Here’s how to find your serial number.
1. Hard Reset
Hard resetting usually takes care of this issue. Hard resetting is the equivalent of “have you tried turning it off and on again” but on a much deeper OS level. It usually resets the defaults.
To do a hard reset on your iPhone with a physical home button (any iPhone before iPhone 7), press and hold both the “Sleep/Wake” and “Home” button for 5 seconds. The iPhone will reboot, you’ll see the Apple icon flash and the iPhone will come to life.
On the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, press and hold the “Sleep/Wake” and “Volume Down” buttons to do the same.
2. Are You Running The Latest OS?
Users first reported of this issue when iOS 9 was new. The effect was random and no actual source for this issue was found.
But users have reported that updating the OS to the latest version usually solves the issue for them. At that time it was iOS 9. At the time of writing, it’s iOS 10.1.
So when your phone is booted and running (presumably after you did the hard reset), go into “Settings” -> “General” -> “Software Update” and update to the latest software.
3. Charge Up
If your phone just isn’t responding and nothing is working (even the hard reset), just put your phone on charing. And keep it there for an hour or so without meddling.
If that doesn’t work, try using a different cable, a different power adaptor or try charging it from your Mac.
4. Drain To 0% Then Fully Charge
If the issue is related to the battery indicator (as in, the battery stats are not displayed properly in the system), the fix is to drain the battery to 0% (actually use the phone till it powers off because there’s no charge left) and then charge it up all the way to 100%.
5. Restore via iTunes
One of the last resorts for this kind of thing, is to restore your phone to the new state via iTunes.
Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your Mac/PC and open iTunes.
Step 2: After your iPhone is recognised, go into the section and first click on “Back up Now” to create a local backup of your phone
Step 3: After the backup is complete, click on “Restore iPhone“. This will start the process of downloading the latest iOS software, wiping your device completely, and installing the new OS on your device.
Once this is done, your phone will be restored to as it was when you first got it. Once the process is done, you’ll be asked if you want to restore the backup you made before. Once that’s done, all your apps and data will be back on your iPhone.
6. Contact Apple
If you did all of the above, we’ve taken care of any software issues that might be responsible for randomly shutting off your iPhone even when you had charge left.
But we can only do so much. It’s possible that your iPhone has a damaged battery, or any other component. If your iPhone is 3-4+ years old, that’s a very real possibility (I’ve seen it happen to a year old iPhone 6 too).
The best option is to contact Apple (call them on 1-800-694-7466) or to go into your nearest Apple service station or Apple store. If you’re under warranty or have Apple Care+ (always a good idea), Apple might just give you a new device or you’ll have to pay for repairs.
How Did You Fix It?
How did you manage to fix this issue on your device? Share with us in the comments below, it might help others facing the same issue.
