Odd battery behaviour iPhone 5s

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I was in Denmark for a few days' holiday and used my cousin's charger (one of those multi-cable USB chargers) to recharge both my iPhone and iPad. The USB was then plugged into a UK-European adapter. Voltage in UK and Denmark are the same at 230 volts.

The phone behaved normally for heavy usage (maps and photos) for three days then, on the next, shut off when the battery charge was down to about 30%. It would switch back on again with a soft restart, then switch off again. It behaved the same way the following two days and even the day after I charged it at home with the original Apple cable.

It's now been charged three times with the Apple cable and seems to be behaving normally. I downloaded the 'Battery Life' app which showed its capacity as 84% which seems reasonable for a phone bought new about two years ago and charged daily.

Can anyone advise, please - is the battery going kaput or was the cable the problem?
 

chscag

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It could be an intermittent cable, but I would suspect the battery is beginning to misbehave. I have seen the same thing on an iPhone 6+ after using it for 18 months. Most iPhone batteries will start to deteriorate after 18 months to 2 years depending on use and charge cycles.
 

Rod


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Check out Coconut Battery, with your iPhone plugged in via USB it will give you a health report and it's free.
 
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Check out Coconut Battery, with your iPhone plugged in via USB it will give you a health report and it's free.

I've heard that Coconut Battery does not give precise data anymore as Apple has stopped providing battery data for third-party apps.
 

chscag

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Note that Sue stated she downloaded the "Battery Life" app (which works well) and it indicated that the battery capacity was at 84%. That's pretty much normal for an iPhone that's 2 or 3 years old and has numerous charge cycles on it.

And.. I have not heard anything about Apple not providing battery data for third party apps. Do you have a factual link that states that?
 
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badshoehabit
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Thanks for the input. It seems to be behaving - maybe because it sensed I was looking at a replacement (whisper...Samsung Galaxy A3). :Mischievous:
 

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Thanks for the input. It seems to be behaving - maybe because it sensed I was looking at a replacement (whisper...Samsung Galaxy A3).
:Mischievous:

Please Sue, no blasphemy on a Sunday morning! ;D O:)
 

Rod


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Sue, I have just had an experience akin to what you might experience. Changing from iOS to Android. This is a cautionary tale:

This was not a choice thing, I found myself in Bali, Indonesia for an extended time with a failed iPhone. One day it worked and the next day it did not. I wont go into the boring details but suffice to say everything was tried to no avail, the thing was bricked.

So, what to do? Fork out an inflated price for a new iPhone (about 20% more than Australia) or purchase a popular local Android make.
The Samsung Galaxy is almost as expensive as an iPhone there, at least for the better models with comparable storage (the 5s had 64Gb).
So thinking that all Android phone were essentially created equal I bought a Vivo Y55 dual SIM with 16Gb storage. It was on special at around AU $200.00 plus a 32Gb expansion card came to a total of about $250.00.

My first mistake was assuming all Android phones were the same.
The Vivo while currently running 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) uses the FunTouch OS.
Unfortunately this OS is unable to "Adopt" an SD card so it cannot add it to the total system memory. Only a few apps are capable of changing their storage location to the SD card but fortunately they are the big two, pictures and music, but only with some serious fiddling ie moving the DCIM folder to the SD card.

I have had to change most of the native apps. They were the most basic versions imaginable. eg. I could not even Copy an Paste in the generic Contacts app. This required a lot of shopping, reading and trial and error as you can imagine.
I now have a satisfactory email app, contacts app, camera app, calendar, anti-virus app (essential on Android) and a range of other must haves such as MS Word, One Drive, Drop Box, and Mute an app thats makes all the noises and alerts this phone likes to make shut up so I can leave it on over night and a few banking apps.
So far, despite not being able to remove any native apps I found that you can delete their data so I still have 5.68Gb available on the phone and 26.4Gb on the SD card.
This whole process took nearly 2 weeks.

Because I have a MacBook Pro I also needed to find a successful means of data transfer and to date have only found two free and basically successful cross platform apps to achieve this. Android File Transfer (Mac OSX) and FileDrop (cross platform WiFi Transfer). This despite Android File Transfer requiring some tweaking of Developer Options on the phone, accessed in an almost mystical way. You have to go to Settings > More Settings > Software version > tap 7 times and Developer Options are added to the bottom of the previous screen (more settings). You also get a scary popup warning about the dangers of what you have done. It was essential however to Debug the USB connection to allow the phone to do more than just charge the battery via USB to the Mac.

So I have learned a lot about Android phones, settings, Android apps, the FunTouch OS and transferring macOS data. It has been a steep learning curve but I am now happy with this phone. I forgot to mention it's bigger than the 5s with a 35 cm screen and the added realestate, which I used to think was a bit ostentatious, is great for almost everything.
Oh, and one more thing, the battery life is double that of the 5s. I have a couple of times gone 2 days without charging.

I do not mean to suggest that my experience would be universal. No doubt other makes (OS's) would have different capabilities and limitations and I have to say my experience has been interesting and fun at times. I am no longer locked in to a "closed ecosystem" and a lot more could be written about that.
 
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Thanks, Rod. I followed your trials with your phone and am sad it wasn't viable. I have the same 64gb model. I mentioned the Galaxy A3 because a friend has one and it seemed easy to use as well as being a reasonable size.

i don't want to go back to Android, most importantly for the ability to sync between all my Apple stuff, but I like neither the size nor cost of the newer iPhones. I have looked at contracts here in the UK and may default to one of those rather than the SIM only deal I have now. Just to see what was available I put all my needs (including cost) into my current provider's search facility and guess what it came up with - yep, iPhone 5s!!

Also, I might look at a refurbished iPhone but that would be from an independent seller as Apple don't do them in the UK.
 

chscag

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Also, I might look at a refurbished iPhone but that would be from an independent seller as Apple don't do them in the UK.

Be careful of those. I don't trust third party refurbished iPhones or Macs. Too many charlatans out there who claim it's been refurbished like new but in fact they did nothing to the device but maybe clean it up a bit. Your 5s is still a good iPhone and will be supported for awhile. You may be able to find a brand new 6s being sold by an Apple dealer who has them in stock. I don't know if Apple still sells the 6s or 6s+ in the UK as they do here in the US.
 
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The 6 (and 7) is far too big.
 

chscag

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The 6 (and 7) is far too big.

Then instead of a 6 or 7, find a new iPhone SE from a local Apple dealer there in the UK. They're a lot less costly than the larger phones but just as capable. And they can fit easily in your purse or jeans pocket. My wife has a 6s+ because she likes the larger screen and carries it in her purse that looks like an overnight travel bag. :)
 
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My phone misbehaved similarly on another multiple charger while on another trip so I've taken the plunge and tomorrow am picking up an... iPhone 7, 128gb in the special edition red. As I'm tied to my SIM only deal for another 10 months, I've bought again, persuaded by a good price (£70 less than RRP) from John Lewis, one of the UK's reputable department store chains. I handled different models in a store and decided it wasn't too big and went for the 7 rather than the 6 or SE because of the waterproofing.
 

IWT


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Good girl, Sue.

Same iPhone as I have. 128GB iPhone 7.

I can't see your being disappointed. It's a dream. (And we know about John Lewis Partnership - excellent UK shop.)

Ian
 

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