iPhone Battery Health: Monitoring, Optimization, and Maintenance Tips

Apple faced backlash for slowing down older iPhone models to preserve battery life. Users can now monitor battery health and enable optimized battery charging to prolong battery lifespan. Additionally, they can track battery usage by app and learn to conserve battery and prevent overheating.

iPhone Battery Charging

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
September 17, 2024 – 4 minutes read time

Apple landed in hot water with customers several years ago when a feature designed to slow the processors of older iPhone models to keep them from suddenly shutting down came to light. Critics maintained that Apple was throttling the speed of earlier iPhone models to push customers toward newer devices. At the same time, Apple insisted that the feature was necessary to cope with aging batteries. Now, Apple lets users monitor the health of their iPhones’ battery. Let’s explore this feature.

This post works on iPhones running iOS 15 or later

Click here to learn how to update your iPhone to the latest iOS version.

First, open the Settings app, and tap on Battery. Refer to the below image:

Battery 8
Accessing the Battery option

Next, tap on Battery Health & Charging. See the below image:

Battery 7
Accessing the Battery Health option

Now, you will see your battery capacity next to Maximum Capacity. See the following image:

Battery 6
Viewing the Maximum Capacity of the battery

The Maximum Capacity tells you your iPhone battery’s capacity compared to its capacity when it was brand new. For example, if your Maximum Capacity is 85%, that is all your battery can charge. On this screen, you can also enable Optimized Battery Charging, which reduces aging by optimizing how your battery behaves when charging. Refer to the below image:

Battery 5
Enabling Optimized Battery Charging

If your battery’s Maximum Capacity has dropped below 80%, a message like this will pop up on your screen if you experience an unexpected shutdown. See the below image:

Battery 1
Viewing Battery Health degradation warning message

You can tap Disable to turn off battery throttling on your iPhone or you may want to consider replacing your battery to improve your iPhone’s performance and the amount of time it can operate between charges.

To view your battery usage by app, go back to:

Settings > Battery

Swipe down on the Battery settings screen and you will discover battery usage by app, starting with the biggest battery hogs. By default, the tool shows you the percentage of battery charge by each app. Tap Show Activity or a specific app, and the information changes to display the time the app has used the battery, both in the foreground and background. See the following image:

Battery 4
Viewing Battery Usage

Besides Optimized Battery Charging you can conserve your battery, turning down the brightness of your screen will increase battery health. To adjust the screen brightness, head to:

Settings > Display & Brightness 

and moving the slider. Refer to the below image:

Battery 3
Turning down Brightness to conserve battery usage

 Using your iPhone in hot conditions can permanently shorten battery life. Store your device where the temperature is between -20º and 45º C (-4º to 113º F). Do not leave your device in your car, because temperatures in parked cars can exceed this range.

If your device gets too warm or too cold, certain features might become temporarily disabled. In extreme conditions, your device might become temporarily disabled. A temperature warning screen will be displayed. See the below image:

Battery 2
iPhone is too hot warning message

Technology is always changing. Rarely is there static tech for smartphones and desktops. Thus, the contents of this post are only valid at the time of writing. Blog posts older than six months may have directions incompatible with your device or OS. Hopefully, older post content will continue to work as advertised. Thank you for reading TechSavvy.Life for Technology at Work For You.

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Author: Raymond

I am Raymond Oglesby, an Information Technology (IT) specialist with 30 years in the field. I have taught Microsoft Applications and troubleshot computers in 15 countries and many States. My career was focused on mainframes and desktops from application development to implementation. I have written hundreds of programs for various architectures. I decided to start a blog to share my knowledge and experiences with you. I plan on updating this blog at least twice a week about smart phone apps to Windows. Please feel free to leave a Comment or Tweet. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

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