Ever since Apple introduced a measure to stop iPhones from unexpectedly shutting down in iOS 11, politicians and other morons have jumped on the story to gin up publicity for themselves. Now, thanks to their efforts, Apple has added a control that lets you switch off iOS 11’s Performance Management.
If you do switch it off, then your iPhone will stop slowing performance when the battery is too weak to supply enough power, and instead you can again face unexpected shutdowns. Here’s how.
Performance Management
Photo: Apple
The latest beta of iOS 11.3 brings a new Battery Health section in Settings. This can be found in Settings>Battery, and only on the iPhones 6, 6 Plus. 6s, 6s Plus, 7, and 7 Plus. Newer iPhones have different power management methods which don’t need these controls: “iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X models use a more advanced hardware and software design that provides a more accurate estimation of both power needs and the battery’s power capability to maximize overall system performance. This allows a different performance management system that more precisely allows iOS to anticipate and avoid an unexpected shutdown,” says Apple.
Photo: Apple
By default, any iPhone upgraded to iOS 11.3 will have the performance management feature turned off. Only when the iPhone has unexpectedly shut down is the feature re-enabled. You can switch it back off again yourself, if you prefer. Once iOS 11 has enabled performance management, you’ll see a new option in the Peak Performance Capability of the Battery Health section. The word “Disable” appears, and you can tap it to disable performance management.
Battery Health
Aside from this new ability to let ignorant folks fiddle with settings best managed by the operating system, the Battery Health section brings something useful. As you can see in the screenshots in this post, the beta now tells you the battery’s maximum capacity. All batteries degrade over time as they are used and charged, and factors like heat, or how fast you charge the battery can hasten the the demise. You can use an app like coconutBattery to monitor the health of your iPhone’s battery, but now in iOS 10.3 you can quickly check the maximum capacity remaining from the new Battery Health section.
Pointless
Apple has clearly been forced into adding these “features” by bad publicity born of ignorance. The point behind slowing down an iPhone with a bad battery seems obvious: It cures unexpected shutdowns when the battery can’t supply enough power. And the slowdowns only happen under peak power draw, so everyday use remains unaffected (unless your battery is in a really poor state). Performance Management will probably end up in the same category of Apple voodoo as force-quitting apps regularly in order to stop them from using your battery.
I weep for the future of humankind.
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
30 responses to “How to disable iOS 11.3’s new battery Performance Management feature”
I like the tone of this. Yes they are morons. So now Apple is adding a tool so they can start whining about how their three year old phone shuts down all the time. What’s next, crying about how seat belts wrinkle their suit? How the guard rail on the bridge spoils the view. You can be sure I will be leaving this on on my devices. I need them running, not crashing. BTW I don’t use the word throttling for the fix. That implies they slowed the phone down throughout its operation. All they did was limit the top end a bit. 99% of the users 99% of the time will not notice a thing.
A properly designed phone with a non-defective Li-ion battery should NOT shutdown spontaneously no matter what.
Has this ever happened to any phone before the 6? Any other manufacturer’s phone? Any laptop?
There’s a reason.
Wrong. Batteries wear out.
Newer phones with faster processors make higher peak demands of batteries. This is why many Android users complain of excessive reboots. The Pixel phone is notorious for this problem.
Apple’s messaging concerning iPhone batteries has been clear from the outset. They will deliver >80% of initial charge capacity for 500 charge cycles, at which point they are considered to be end of life. This assumes that the battery has not been degraded due to misuse. Examples of misuse: leaving an iPhone to bake on the dashboard of a parked car or in bright sunlight in a hot day; use of non-Apple certified chargers, etc.
Higher peak demands of batteries demands higher-capacity cells.
Bottom line – iPhone 3G/4/5 did not experience this.WIth iPhone 6 it became a problem.
Sorry, you can’t just say “your 500 charge cycles are up, all bets are off on your phone”. If you charge your battery every day in just one year you already have 365 cycles.
$79 for a battery change…high margin money in the bank.
Samsung batteries only last 300 charge cycles to 70%. Where’s your outrage about that?.
FYI, these days Apple is charging $29 for an out-of-warrantee battery exchange. Try to keep up with current events.
Yes, SIR!
If this is all the users’ fault, why would they reduce the price of the battery exchange?
To cover up that their power mesh design on the iPhone 6 CPU was poor. Too sensitive to voltage drops.
Nobody is perfect, perhaps Apple did make an error in how the phone responds to a trashed battery. They fixed it with with a software patch.
Seems like a smart fix to me, especially since even a fully throttled iPhone 6 is still faster than any of its 2014 Android competitors were, new out of the box.
No, they did not “fix” it with a patch – they slowed down everyone’s phone. You don’t seem to get that the 6/6+/6s have hardware flaws that they want to cover up with a) throttling CPU speed, and b) discounted battery replacements.
About “iphone 6 is faster than Android”, that is a fanboy statement if I ever heard one. So you say a 2014 Android takes 10 seconds to boot the camera?
You don’t remember the anemic crap that powered 2014 Androids do you?
If you really have an old iPhone 6 with a dead battery, why not just replace the effing battery?
Um, because I’m on a WAITING LIST because they don’t have enough batteries and Geniuses to replace all of them in a decent amount of time?
Now you’re really into troll fanboi mode with the Android “crap”, so you’re blocked.
Apple is not the only source for inexpensive battery replacements. Try iFixIt.
Yes, yes, and yes. Batteries have been a weak spot for all manufacturers and products going way back.
I have many devices that run off of Li-ion batteries. None of them experienced random shutdowns when the battery meter says 30% remaining.
Okay. So I guess that means you’ve never owned an iPhone 6.
This begs the question: why is any of this important to you?
I had a 6 – sold it. My wife has a 6 that runs dog slow. We’re on a WAITING LIST for the new battery. They might get to us in March.
I now have an 8 that runs fine…for now.
Please, stop with this “Apple is beyond reproach” fanboy attitude.
Quit making excuses and buy a DIY battery kit from iFixIt. Same price.
Agreed, we’re Morons now and Ignorant according to this article.
While the tone of this is all about sympathy for “poor, poor Apple” for having to do this, why don’t you ask the question of why shutdowns happened in the first place?
Why not also ask if the battery is just aged and rundown why has this only occurred on the iPhone 6/6+/6s and not any phone before or after? I have an iPhone 4 with an original battery and it still has quite decent battery life and has *never* shutdown unless it went lower than 1% as read on the display.
Why not also ask how come this doesn’t happen with any other smartphone out there with older batteries? Or any laptops? Or any cameras? Any other device you know with old batteries that shut down at 30% when asked for peak power?
I’ll tell you why – there’s more to the story than just “your battery’s too old”. Apple just doesn’t want you to know about it.
Shutdowns happened due to defective batteries for a tiny number of iPhone 6 users. These users got new batteries for free under a recall.
For the vast majority of users seeing this issue, restarts occur because their battery is worn out due to normal use or because they abused their phones by repeatedly overheating them.
I’ve used the Coconut app on my Mac to check my iPhone batteries for years, and I’ve never had one wear out, even after 2+ years of daily use.
Most of us have used older batteries in many devices – including previous generation iPhones, and none of them shut down with 30% remaining. It only started with iPhone 6.
And claiming customers “abused their phones by repeatedly overheating them” is a lame excuse pushed onto innocent customers. Yeah – up until the iPhone 6, nobody ever abused their phones.
Bad CPU design and/or inferior/defective batteries on the 6/6+/6s. Simple as that.
Amazing how the fanboys will defend their beloved company.
I’ve owned iPhone 6, 6s, 7 Plus, and I now have an iPhone X.
Never had a single problem with any of them.
I don’t know anyone who has an iPhone with a degraded battery. It’s a tempest in a teapot, and food for trolls.
That reminds me, time to stop feeding you…
My wife’s 6 shutdown at 30%, then updated the iOS and it takes 10 seconds to open the Camera.
Not just me – many, many other people. Glad to know your phones work wonderfully for you.
If it were a “tempest in a teapot” why would Apple apologize and put a disable button in iOS?
Can’t afford $29 for a new battery? Get an Android. You deserve it.
Samsung got thrown under the bus for the battery fires (as they should). However with Apple, it’s boo-hoo, why do they get picked on?
You’re the largest, richest leviathan corporation in history. Stop whining.
I’m not whining. You are, sir.
I accept that batteries age, that Apple has implemented a solution to make older phones work with degraded batteries, and that Apple is offering super cheap battery replacements. They’ve made it right.
You’d rather complain on website comments sections than buy your wife a new battery for her phone.
What’s your problem?
Read my comment below to get an insight
Well.. I completely disagree with you all. I have been using several iOS versions and doing benchmarks on all of them.
The fact is: It does not matter if you have new batteries or old batteries (cpu’s), they were all capped on all ios versions after the 10.2 until the newest 11.3 beta 2 release.
No matter the battery performance (apple certified (the 29$ ones) or aftermarket), cycle or battery power percentage (did several benchmarks from 15% to 100% battery on all kinds of batteries), the score on geekbench never went to 1600 on single core and 2800 on multicore (which is the standard for an iphone 6), it was always 800-900 and 1200-1500, respectively. So yes… it was VERY slow.
So what i’m trying to say is this: until 11.3 beta 2, apple did not allow my iphone 6 to achieve maximum performance no matter what battery i use.
I’m using 11.3b2 for 2 days now, and:
– i can clearly see a battery drain (which is logical).
– the iphone 6 here is at its peak performance, so no need to use amplified display to reduce stuttering anymore.
– heaven.
Talking to you all respectfully, of course. Please, no chaos.. because you all know that CHAOS IS A LADDER. :D
I’ve owned iPhone 6, 6s, 7 Plus, and I now have an iPhone X.Never had a single problem with any of them.I don’t know anyone who has an iPhone with a degraded battery. It’s a tempest in a teapot, and food for trolls.That reminds me, time to stop feeding you…
“If you charge your battery every day in just one year you already have
365 cycles”. Nope, not unless you run it down to nothing every day. If
you run it down to 30%, that’s only 70% of a cycle. My iPhone 6 battery
has 771 cycles and is at 79% capacity, according to Coconut Battery.
Works beautifully and speedily. Only time it’s ever shut down on me is if I forget to
check and charge and run it right down. Normally I recharge it before
it gets there. 10.3.3
I love how “people” jump on Apple when they think their phones are slow. If it really is slow, there are any number of things to consider that are IMO far more likely a culprit: Age of phone? Age of phone v iOS version installed? iOS version? Resolution of the Logan Paul videos they watch all day? Home internet slow or throttled by provider? Cell data throttled by provider? Too many people on the Wifi? Torrenting on same connection? iCloud settings? Time of day (my cell data is 10x faster after midnight)? Service dead spot? Do they even try restarting the phone?