So, you’ve just checked your iPhone battery health and are concerned because the level is dropping. I completely get you. It’s natural for lithium-ion batteries in iPhones to degrade over time. As a result, the battery health doesn’t remain the same as you use your iPhone. Therefore, it’s crucial to maintain your iPhone battery health if you wish to prolong its lifespan. In this article, we’ve mentioned 10 tips that will ensure you get good usage between charges for a long time. If you’ve recently bought a new iPhone, you should follow tips to maintain iPhone battery health in the long run. Without any ado, let’s begin!
1. Avoid Complete Charging & Discharging
Many users have an everyday routine of using their iPhones till the battery drops to 2 or 3 percent, and then charging it to 100%. If you’re among them, this iPhone battery health tip is for you. Keeping your iPhone at full charge and then letting it die completely is one of the biggest battery killers. It can degrade the battery’s health in the long run. To maintain the battery health of your iPhone, try not to charge your iPhone to 100% and then discharge it to 0 to 5%. If you wish to prolong the battery life and enjoy optimal performance on your iPhone, you can stick to a 30% to 80% battery level window.
Well, this isn’t as difficult as you might think. You don’t have to keep an eye on the battery levels all the time. Charge your iPhone at your convenience, but avoid charging it to 100% and then discharging it completely. If you ask me, I often charge my iPhone to 80 to 85% and plug it back when the battery level dips to around 30%.
We also recommend not to use your iPhone while charging. You can do some messaging or scroll through social media posts but avoid playing games or watching videos, if you wish to take care of your iPhone’s battery.
2. Use Optimized Battery Charging
Now, we know that overcharging isn’t good for your iPhone. Thankfully, Apple offers a built-in iOS feature, Optimized Battery Charging that learns from your everyday charging habits and prevents overcharging. It tracks your everyday usage and charging patterns to predict when you connect it to a charger for an extended period. When enabled, Optimized Charging will temporarily pause the charge at 80% and top up the remaining 20% just before you start using your phone. In the long run, this feature helps reduce the natural aging of lithium-ion batteries and maintain iPhone battery health.
To enable Optimized Battery Charging on your iPhone, go to Settings -> Battery -> Battery Health & Charging and turn on the Optimized Battery Charging toggle.
3. Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Exposing your iPhone to ambient temperatures higher than 35° C /95° F can affect the battery’s ability to hold a charge, giving you less time between the chargers. In the long run, it can permanently damage your phone’s battery. To preserve the battery health of your iPhone, you must avoid exposing your device to extremely low or high temperatures. In case your iPhone overheats or displays a temperature warning, you should try to cool it down before using it or plugging in a charger. To do this, turn off your iPhone, remove the case (if you’ve installed one), and place it in a cooler area. Don’t blast any cooled air or perform similar tricks. Just give your iPhone some time and it will return to a normal temperature.
It’s worth knowing that it’s normal for your iPhone to generate some heat in some cases. Common examples include playing heavy games or watching videos on cellular data at a stretch. Your iPhone should return to a normal temperature after some time. However, if you’ve installed a case that has a poor heat dissipation system, it can trap the generated heat and overheat your iPhone, which hampers the battery. In such a case, you must remove the case. If this doesn’t help, here’s our dedicated guide on how to fix iPhone overheating problems.
4. Ditch Frequent Overnight Charging
Many users have a habit of charging their iPhones overnight, after all, it’s the most convenient option. However, if you frequently charge your iPhone overnight, it can damage the battery and reduce its lifespan. Frequent overnight charging is bad because it pushes more current than the capacity of the cells. Also, when your iPhone spends most of the night in a fully charged state, it impacts the overall battery’s health.
To avoid any complications, you must give up on your habit of charging your iPhone overnight. Also, the Optimized Battery Charging feature comes in handy to maintain your iPhone battery health.
5. Use Official Charging Accessories
One of the best ways to prolong the battery health of your iPhone is to ensure that you use only Apple-certified chargers and cables. While you can find a variety of chargers in the market that can juice up your iPhone, not all of them are certified by Apple. That means they aren’t of the same quality and you can’t expect the same compatibility with the battery. In short, non-certified or poorly designed chargers aren’t good for your iPhone battery health. Initially, they might throw slow or no charging problems and can deteriorate battery health over time.
To avoid any complications, we recommend using only Apple-branded or certified charging accessories. If you wish to go for third-party options, we advise opting for only MFi-certified chargers from trusted global brands.
6. Update to Latest iOS Version
Keeping your iPhone up-to-date with the latest iOS version helps you maintain the iPhone battery health. Apple regularly releases software updates that improve the overall performance of your devices. Also, they bring new features, fix any common glitches, and even keep the battery in good condition for a long time. That’s not all. Software updates also come with certain battery-saving features. For instance, iOS 12 brought the Screen Time which can help you track how much time you spend on your iPhone & which apps you use the most. Therefore, it’s a great idea to update your iPhone with the latest version of iOS.
- On your iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update.
- If any updates are pending, connect your iPhone to a power source and download the latest iOS version.
7. Turn Off Unnecessary Features
To prolong your iPhone battery health and make the most out of a full battery charge, you should turn off any features you don’t need. An iPhone offers a ton of features, and you might not need all of them. According to your preference and needs, you might want to disable some features and save battery life on your iPhone. Well, we aren’t asking you to keep these features off all the time, that would not make any sense. You can simply disable some features that you don’t need or aren’t using actively. Let’s have a quick look at them:
- Go to Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh -> Background App Refresh and select Off.
- On iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro models, go to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Always On Display and turn on the Always On toggle.
- If features like Mobile Data and Location Services are not in use, you should turn them off.
8. Limit the Use of Fast and Wireless Chargers
Gone are the days of fast charging. Today, faster and fastest charging features have become a way to attract users and judge how capable a smartphone is. Fast charging is great for quick top-ups when you wish to power your iPhone without spending a lot of time. However, frequent fast charging isn’t good for your iPhone’s battery. That’s because fast charging forces the battery to take up a lot of power in a minimum time, which stresses the battery and impacts its long-term health.
I have a 35W MacBook charger that can rapidly charge my iPhone 14 Pro. However, I don’t remember using it ever. I often charge my iPhone with a 20W and sometimes even switch to a 10W charger which slowly tops up my iPhone, maintaining the battery health.
Just like fast charging, wireless charging can be convenient for some users. However, wireless chargers can generate a lot of heat which can hamper the iPhone battery. It’s a nice idea to use compatible wired chargers rather than wireless or MagSafe options. Of course, you can sometimes switch to wireless chargers, but make sure they are MFi-certified.
9. Restart Your iPhone at times
To get rid of minor software glitches and enjoy optimal performance, you must make a habit of restarting your iPhone at regular intervals. This will fix a lot of common problems, make your device more responsive, and keep the battery in good shape. Now, that’s because, when you restart your iPhone, it immediately lightens the system load and clears away any minor iOS glitches that build up over time, giving a fresh start to the system.
10. Charge iPhone to 50% Before Keeping It Away
Our final iPhone battery health tip is for users who are planning to store their iPhones. There can be instances when you’re planning to upgrade to a new iPhone without trading in or giving away the older one. It’s always a nice idea to keep backup option in case something goes wrong with your primary device or someone in your family needs a spare iPhone. Before you store your iPhone in a drawer for an extended period, make sure to charge the iPhone battery around 50%. Otherwise, you’ll stuck with a non-functional iPhone the next time you take it out of your storage box.
All you need to do is charge your iPhone to 50% and then turn it off to prevent battery consumption before you store it. If you aren’t planning to use that iPhone for a really long time, you should set a reminder to charge it again to 50% every six months.
While you can’t stop lithium-ion batteries from degrading over time, these tips will help keep your iPhone battery in good condition for a long time. As a result, you can use your device for years without any notable battery-related problems.
