Mobile phone battery problems: welcome to the nightmare

A reader writes: “Please help! I upgraded to the most recent iPhone update and the following day, my battery started draining like crazy. A fully charged phone went to like 30 percent in two hours within my Wi-Fi home network. I’ve Googled it and done these things: set the apps not to automatically refresh, turned off any health tracking stuff because I don’t use those. I’ve made apps see my location only if I’m using them. I’ve even done the update again to see if they fixed any bugs. Can you help me? Any advice for not pulling out my hair?”

Short-lived battery issues are one of the more frustrating things to deal with on smart phones because the cause can be any number of things, from a software update bug that may be remedied later to exposing the phone to extreme temperatures to a physical problem with the battery itself.

Complicating matters is that your phone’s battery indicator may not even be giving you correct information. Apple has had a bug on some iPhone 6 Plus devices to power off spontaneously and some iOS users have experienced battery indicator jumps or freezes, which may even be caused by time or time zone settings on the phone. And software-caused battery issues aren’t limited to iPhones; it happens on Android, too.

A few things you can try: apart from updating to the latest mobile software version, which could address battery-draining bugs, you should disable location services and running in the background for apps you don’t need to use in that way. Apple has a list of battery tips on its site and the web is full of tutorials on how to recalibrate your phone battery, a lengthy process that involves fully draining and recharging your battery. And if all else fails, and especially if your phone is under warranty, visit your wireless carrier or Apple Store and ask them to take a look. You may have a bad battery that needs replacing or other hardware issue.