Paul Morris on December 6, 2016, 10:09 pm

Apple: iOS Update Coming Next Week To Further Diagnose iPhone 6s Battery Shutdown Issue

An iOS update is coming next week to further help diagnose the iPhone 6s battery shutdown issue, confirms Apple. Here’s what you need to know.

Apple has updated a note placed on its Chinese website to confirm that battery shutdown issues on certain iPhone 6s units are more widespread that been thought initially. Apple had previously updated its China-facing website to confirm that a number of iPhone 6s units manufactured between September and October 2015 were suffering from unexpected shutdown issues after the battery units were exposed to “controlled ambient air.”

iPhone-6s-Battery

Now, in an effort to keep customers informed, the Cupertino-based company has updated that information to confirm some iPhone 6s owners with devices manufactured outside of that affected range could also be experiencing the issue.

As part of a concerted effort to resolve the issue for those affected by the random iPhone 6s shutdowns, Apple has already set up a free repair program designed to replace the internal battery of affected devices. Those devices were identified by their serial number which Apple could trace back to being one from the batch of iPhone 6s units manufactured during the aforementioned dates.

However, it seems that the company has now come to the conclusion that some devices outside of that batch are also affected, with the company stating that it needs to collect additional information to help alienate the reason.

A small number of customers outside of the affected range have also reported an unexpected shutdown. Some of these shutdowns can occur under normal conditions in order for the iPhone to protect its electronics. In an effort to gather more information, 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.

Rather than simply expanding the repair program, and potentially replacing batteries that don’t actually need to be replaced since that will not solve the issue, Apple is looking to push out additional diagnostic and reporting capabilities into iOS with a software update next week to monitor what is actually going on internally on the device.

It seems that the ultimate hope is that this method of attempting to track down the issue will allow Apple to fix the problem with a relatively simple software update that can be pushed out over-the-air on a global scale.

In the meantime, those who believe they are affected can still check out Apple’s dedicated repair program page, and instantly enter the serial number of their iPhone 6s unit to see if it is eligible for a battery replacement. For further details, on how to do that, check out our post here.