Final Solution - iPhone 7 Plus shutdown when taking portrait camera

There's nothing more frustrating than watching your iPhone unexpectedly shut down when you're using it. And even worse, when you switch it back on the battery level is often seriously depleted.

If it’s happening regularly, something is amiss. Here's what to do to stop this happening.

1. Switch off background processes

Even when your iPhone looks like it’s idling, it can be doing a lot of work behind the scenes. These background processes include checking for new emails, updating the weather, retrieving news stories and more. Why? So that when you launch an app it’s full of the most recent information already. But not only does this mean your iPhone is loading a lot of information you may never look at, which can eat into any data cap that applies to your contract – it also means it’s constantly kept busy, which increases the drain on the battery.

Turning off all – or at least most – background processes is an effective way to make your battery last longer and reduce the number of times you pull your iPhone out of your bag and find it won’t wake up. The pay-off is that while most apps should launch just as quickly, it may take a second or two for them to display the latest updates each time you use them. We think that’s a small price to pay, if it can save you the cost of a replacement battery.

2. Enable low power mode

If the battery still isn’t lasting as long as you’d like, switch on low power mode. Your iPhone will offer to do this automatically when the battery depletes to 20% (and again at 10% if you haven’t already switched it on), but you can enable it manually whenever you want – even if the battery is brim-full.

Open Settings and tap Battery, then tap the switch beside Low Power Mode. If you’re going to do this frequently, you can add the option to Control Centre, which is the window of controls that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Go back to the Settings menu and tap Control Centre, then, in the More Controls section, tap the green ‘+’ beside Low Power Mode.

To test it, quit Settings and swipe up from the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a new button on the Control Centre bearing a battery icon. Tap it to enable low power mode without navigating the full Settings menu.

3. Turn off the phone properly

The unexpected shutdown could be down to an app that’s been running in the background and has crashed. If so, get into the habit of turning off your phone properly.

Got an iPhone 8 or earlier? Press and hold either the top or right-hand side button (depending which your model has as it differs between handsets) and then drag the on-screen slider to power it down. After the handset switches off you can switch it back on by using the top or side button again.

On an iPhone X or later, hold down the dedicated Siri key on the right-hand side of the phone and the volume up key (on the left-hand side) and then drag the slider to turn it off. Once it’s switched off completely, press the side button again to switch it on.

4. Completely drain and fully recharge

It sounds silly but most of us probably don’t let our smartphones drain to 0% battery life and then completely recharge to 100%. Instead, when it’s getting to lower levels (in my personal case that’s below 40%) we tend to find the nearest charger and plug the handset straight in.

However, once every few months try to completely drain the battery, then fully recharge it as this can ensure the power gauges are working correctly. If your iPhone hasn't been drained and fully recharged in a while, make a point of doing it now.

5. Update the OS

In some cases, installing the latest operating system update can have a negative effect on battery life – but only temporarily for a few days while the phone gets used to the new features. However, if that red notification about a new version of iOS has been there for a few weeks or longer, install it now.

6. Force restart

If none of the above has worked, it’s time to think about a force restart, which is especially useful if the phone has frozen or won’t turn on after turning off unexpectedly. On an iPhone 6S or earlier, hold down the Home button and the power button on top of the handset together until the Apple icon appears on screen.

If you’ve got an iPhone 7 press and hold the power key (on the right-hand side of the phone) and the volume down button on the left-hand side until you see the Apple logo.

7. Factory reset and restore

If your phone is still misbehaving, it's time to take drastic action.

First, make sure you’ve backed up your iPhone to iCloud. Open the Settings menu and select your name from the top of the screen. Now tap iCloud and scroll down and select iCloud Backup. Press Back Up Now and wait for the process to complete.

When it’s finished, go back to the main Settings menu and select General, then scroll down and tap the section marked Reset. From here choose Erase All Content and Settings and then tap Erase iPhone from the warning that appears. Once you’ve entered your Apple ID the phone will be completely wiped and you can begin setting up as if it’s new, restoring from your iCloud backup when the option appears on screen.

8. Battery replacement

If none of the tips above have worked, then you will need to contact Apple as your handset may need a new battery. Unless you paid for AppleCare or your phone is under warranty, this will be at your expense.

It’s worth checking the health of your existing battery before paying for a new one. Open Settings and tap Battery, followed by Battery Health. If the Maximum Capacity measure shown here is below 80%, consider booking it in for a replacement. You should see an Important Battery Message on the screen in this case, with a link to ‘More about service options’. Apple details what the various elements on this screen mean on its website.