Well, it was coming. With the growing number of users (mainly from China) facing ‘Battery Gate’ issue on their iPhone 6s, Apple has finally gone on record and admitted that the device does have a problem. Apart from users, Apple also faced a lot of pressure from China’s Consumer Association, considered as government’s watchdog, which is why the company took its Chinese website to post about the issue and the possible solution.
The post read – “We take every customer concern very seriously, including the limited number of reports of unexpected shutdown with iPhones. We also want to thank the agencies for forwarding concerns to us and their engagement with us. Every time we encounter an issue, we investigate using a thorough process including analysing these devices.”
“When we find something, we work to quickly provide our customers with a solution.”
Moreover, Apple claims that the shutdowns were limited to the devices (iPhone 6s) manufactured in September and October 2015 which contained a battery component that was exposed to controlled ambient air longer than it should have been. Hence, a small number of iPhone 6s users, as the company claims, are facing unexpected shutdowns. Most of the users claim that the device suddenly shuts off when it is around on 30% of battery. (Source – Forbes)
However, the issue, as addressed by Apple, seems to be not limited to iPhone 6s. The unexpected shutdowns happening at 30% battery level reportedly extends to iPhone 6, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 5S and even iPhone 5. Fortunately, the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are all good and unaffected as of now.
For the workaround, Apple will release an iOS update to curb this issue. The company said in the post – “We are including additional diagnostic capability in an iOS software update which will be available next week. This will allow us to gather information over the coming weeks which may potentially help us improve the algorithms used to manage battery performance and shutdown. If such improvements can be made, they will be delivered in future software updates.”
One should note that the update will only diagnose the issue and send data to Apple, post which, the company will see if it can be fixed by a software issue or not. The quote – ‘If such improvements can be made’ certainly indicates that this may require Apple to extend the battery replacement program it recently announced in China before releasing this statement.
In other news, many iPhone users especially using the new iPhone 7 are facing unexpected ‘Phone’ App freezes which sometimes makes it impossible to make calls. Not only this, users have also complained about the Phone app crashing when they are on recent calls menu or even during the calls over Bluetooth headsets. Apple hasn’t replied to any of the complaints pertaining to this issue, but, users claim that the fix might well come with the commercial release of iOS 10.2.