iOS Glitch Lies About Your Phone’s Dead Battery

What is it with software bugs and our battery life? Can’t we just have unlimited power–not the “take over the world” kind, but at least the “make my phone work” kind?

Much like the previous Google Nest announcement that a software bug in the recent December update caused Nest thermostats to run out of power, leaving users in the cold, a glitch in a recent iOS update leaves users without battery life, despite the indicator on the screen showing users their phones are still charged.

This isn’t your typical iOS update that causes your battery to drain a little faster. Longtime users may have noticed–and even become accustomed to–having to go into the Settings and change a few things in order to keep some of their battery life. That’s because some of the updates over the years have caused new features to run in the background, soaking up your precious power. Some of the typical fixes for poor battery efficiency include switching over to the new Low Battery Mode or switching to Airplane Mode if you spot an issue, but those are hardly the settings users want to resort to after buying an expensive phone.

Instead, this is an actual bug that causes the battery display to not be telling the whole truth. It’s already left users with a dead battery despite a screen display that says they should be good to go. Typically, though, it is a bigger problem for people who cross time zones or if you’d gone into the phone’s clock for some reason and changed the time yourself. Apple is already working on it for (you guessed it) the next round of updates, but if you want to be sure you’re seeing the whole truth when it comes to your battery life, do a hard restart of your phone then go to Settings>General>Date & Time and see if Set Automatically is turned on.