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Apple confirms bug that makes the iPhone’s most frustrating problem even more frustrating

Updated Jan 18th, 2016 12:56PM EST
iPhone Battery Life

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Owners of Apple’s iPhone line of handsets are historically the most loyal smartphone users in the world according to countless studies. They love iPhones and they upgrade to new iPhones more regularly than patrons of any other mobile platform. As loyal as and satisfied as they are though, we doubt any iPhone user would make the claim that his or her handset is perfect. No, iPhones have problems just like any other smartphones, and some are more prominent than others.

While each user has his or her own complaints, there’s one issue that always seems to bubble up to the top of every list: battery life. And just in case the issue wasn’t already frustrating enough, Apple has confirmed a bug that can make the iPhone’s comparatively poor battery life even more frustrating.

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We’ve discussed numerous times the fact that Apple values design and thinness more than battery life. As a result, the iPhone 6s features battery life that doesn’t quite measure up to rival Android phones, and the same can be said of the iPhone 6s Plus when compared to similarly sized phablets.

Just in case the iPhone’s battery life wasn’t annoying enough, Apple has confirmed a newly uncovered bug that causes some iPhones to misreport the amount of charge remaining in a phone. As a result, iPhone batteries for affected users have been dying much sooner than expected.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the bug seems on only impact a small amount of users in very specific circumstances.

“If you change the time on your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus manually or change time zones when traveling, you might notice that the battery percentage doesn’t update,” Apple said on a special page on its support site which was first discovered by Ars Technica.

Luckily, the fix is reasonably simple:

  • Restart your iPhone.
  • Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that Set Automatically is turned on.

Apple notes that the company is “aware of this issue and is investigating the cause and a solution,” though it doesn’t state how soon a fix might be released.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.