iPhone Randomly Turns Itself Off with Battery Remaining?

iPhone-battery-suddenly-empty-shuts-down-by-itselfOne of the most annpying battery maishaps: The iPhone shuts off with battery left and your battery percentage was at 10 or 15 percent before. What is causing your iPhone to shut down unexpectedly This issue was and is affecting a number of devices and can’t be pinned down to one specific iPhone generation. Fortunately, we have a number of solutions to this strange issue that you can try to fix your iPhone. Try some of our suggestions and see if they help!

iPhone turns off with 10 percent battery left

Just to clarify the issue we’re dealing with in this guide: Your iPhone turns off with battery left? It may be shutting of at 10 or 15 percent, or even shut off at 20 percent, while the battery life seems to have gotten worse over time. And if you reconnect your iPhone to a charger after losing power, it may display an irrationally high percentage of charge, which couldn’t be possible after such a small period of charging, right? This sounds like you could benefit from one of our three fixes for the “iPhone battery dead?” issue.

iPhone shuts off by itself - is the battery dead?

Check your time and date settings

Settings → General → Date & Time

In one of the support documents Apple explains a possible solution to fixing issues with your iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus battery percentage.

If the battery percentage doesn’t update by itself, you can try going into your “Settings”. Select “General”, then “Date & Time” and verify whether the option titled “Set Automatically” is active. When active, your timezone and the time will be updated automatically according to your location and the battery percentage should update as well.

date time automatically

Calibrate your iPhone battery

The most common solution would be to calibrate your iPhone’s battery. This fix is very useful when your battery and the power management software in your iPhone are no longer in sync. The fix is quite easy you just need a charger. Learn how to (re-)calibrate your iPhone battery.

Battery replacement

Last but not least, there is always a possibility of hardware failure. Most of the time this is simply due to the fact that the lifespan of your iPhone battery has reached its end. This means that Apple, a service provider or you will have to replace the battery in the device.

Before exchanging any kind of hardware, we recommend checking the software side of things. The easiest way to check whether any of your settings, apps or a part of the operating system is interfering with your battery life, is to fully reset your iPhone.

Restore your iPhone (without a backup)

Settings → General → Reset

Open up the “Settings” app, then go to “General” and finally “Reset”. Now tap the button titled “Erase All Content and Settings”. Then follow the assistant to set up your iPhone as a new device, instead of selecting your most recent backup. This will provide you with an opportunity to test the iPhone as a clean slate, so to speak. If your battery issues are gone, you had a software issue. If you still experience the premature shutdown issue, check the next solution.

If you belong to the small percentage of iPhone 5 users that has purchased a device between September 2012 and January 2013, you might be eligible for a free battery replacement via Apple. Enter your serial number on the Apple support page to see if this is applicable in your case.

iPhone battery replacement via Apple

Check out the corresponding Apple battery service page for your current region. Depending upon where you live, conditions may vary. In the United States, Apple is offering a full-fledged battery service for $49 – $69 plus $6.95 for shipping.

iPhone battery replacement via third-party service providers

There are also third-party providers such as iCracked or ubreakifix, who also provide battery replacement services for iPhone users. It might be even cheaper to obtain the replacement battery yourself and diy the repairs using iFixit’s handy guides.