10 tips to maintain your iPhone’s battery health

Are you tired of constantly charging your iPhone throughout the day? If your iPhone’s battery health goes down, it cannot keep up with your busy schedule. Battery health reducing fast is one of the most common complaints among iPhone users. But don’t worry. In this article, I will share 10 handy tips to maintain your iPhone’s battery health for many years.

Why is my iPhone battery health dropping fast?

First, you should know why your iPhone’s battery health is reducing so fast. Here are some of the most common reasons:

1. High usage: Constantly using your phone for streaming, gaming, browsing, and downloading large files can strain the battery and cause it to reduce quickly. 
2. Leaving apps running in the background: When apps run in the background, they continue to use power, especially those that track your locations, even when you’re not actively using them. As a result, battery life can be significantly reduced.
3. Exposure to heat: High temperatures can damage the battery and cause it to reduce more quickly.
4. Not updating iOS: The update patches contain iOS optimizations, so not updating your iPhone can also affect the battery’s health.
5. Using third-party battery cases or chargers: Using non-Apple accessories can damage the battery and degrade its overall health over time.
6. Battery age: Batteries have a limited lifespan. And as they age, they will naturally lose some of their capacity.

First, check your iPhone’s battery health

To view your battery’s current health status, go to Settings on your iPhone → Battery → Battery Health & Charging and check the Maximum Capacity percentage.

Apple considers 80% and above battery capacity ideal. To avoid going below that mark and prevent your battery from malfunctioning, you must employ best practices and maintain your iPhone’s battery health.

10 tips to extend your iPhone battery health

Here are some handy tips to help you prolong and maintain your iPhone’s battery health.

1. Don’t let your iPhone overheat

Your iPhone battery’s worst enemy is extreme temperatures and heat. According to Apple, your iPhone can operate without harm at temperatures as high as 95°F. Beyond that, the battery may suffer irreparable harm, and even your iPhone may explode. Your iPhone has built-in safety features to temporarily turn it off in certain circumstances. 

To prevent your iPhone’s battery from overheating, don’t leave it in the sun or in front of a heater vent in your car. Temperatures below 32°F (0°C) also degrade battery life. They impair the battery’s capacity to store charges. So, taking precautions will help keep your iPhone’s battery in good shape.

2. Use Apple‘s original chargers

Apple always advises using its official cords, adapters, and wireless chargers. Third-party chargers have poor wires and don’t maintain standards properly, though they may juice your iPhone. Moreover, the official Apple accessories prevent power surges and short circuits.

Some petty companies make copy products. So, if you bought MagSafe products online, it’s good to check the Apple MagSafe charger firmware and ensure you’ve got a genuine product.

3. Avoid letting your iPhone die

Letting your iPhone battery discharge is one of the worst things you can do to it. If a discharged lithium-ion battery is left in that condition for a long time, it will go into a deep discharge state and never function again. So, Apple addressed the issue and made iPhone batteries retain some reserve energy after being dead. 

However, if your iPhone runs out of power, charge it as quickly as you can. Also, use your iPhone’s Low Power mode when the battery is 20% or less. It prolongs the battery life until you can go to an outlet. Usually, I juice my iPhone multiple times a day to avoid completely draining it.

4. Don‘t charge overnight

Most people charge devices overnight. But did you know that overcharging your iPhone harms the battery and reduces its health? Maybe your iPhone needs one hour of charging, but plugging it in for 7-8 hours results in overcharging. It pushes more current into already charged cells. 

Therefore, to avoid overcharging, turn on adaptive charging. It’s a built-in feature in your iPhone that maintains the battery healthy. Go to Settings → Battery → Battery Health → toggle on Optimized Battery Charging. This will enable your iPhone to learn your charging pattern.

5. Avoid full charging your iPhone

Apple claims that after 500 full charge cycle counts, iPhones can’t maintain 100% battery health. When battery capacity depletes, iPhones cannot hold a charge for long.

Besides, juicing iPhone fullest generates heat. You may notice the charging speed becomes slow after 80%. Therefore, I suggest avoiding charging your iPhone to 100% and keeping the battery level between 40% and 80%.

6. Get the best wireless charging iPhone cases

If you are using wireless chargers, always use an official MagSafe case. This way, your iPhone will not struggle to maintain a good magnetic connection and capture the charge properly. Besides, premium cases tend to have plugs to close the charging port, so dirt and dust won’t be gathered. 

But keep your eye out to check if your iPhone is overheating due to the case. If required, take off your iPhone cover while it’s charging to avoid this problem.

7. Optimize your iPhone’s settings

Taking the precautions mentioned will undoubtedly help maintain your iPhone battery health. I have optimized a few settings to improve my iPhone battery capacity and fix the battery drain issue. I’d suggest you do the same.

8. Turn off the Always-On display

Apple has introduced a new Always-On display feature for the Pro models of the iPhone. It keeps the lock screen turned on in low-power mode.

The display is updated once per second with dimmed screen brightness. As the function is always in operation, turning off the Always-On display will get you the most use out of your iPhone’s battery.

9. Monitor email updating frequency

The Push and Fetch services help keep your internet account, especially email, updated. Push determines how often your iPhone checks for new emails, calendar alerts, iCloud, and other information from servers. Fetch automatically sends new data to your device whenever it arrives on the server.

You may set specific intervals at which your device will check for new information with the Fetch service. I suggest only allowing the Push function for your primary mail account and manually regulating Push and Fetch for other accounts. It will result in better power savings. 

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone → Apps → Select Mail.
2. Tap Accounts.
   
   
3. Select Fetch New Data → toggle off Push. 
4. Scroll down and choose Hourly under Fetch.
   
   
5. Now, for your secondary accounts, select Manual as the fetch schedule.
   
   

10. Check and optimize Battery Usage information

To understand your usage and the specifics of your power consumption, check your iPhone’s battery usage data. It will mention all apps that are using the most energy. Besides, find out whether an app consumes a battery without being used from Background Activity stats. Now, try to use those power-hungry apps less than you normally do. Read this guide to learn how to enable Background App Refresh on your iPhone.

So, that’s all for today, folks!

Sadly, there is no method to always keep iPhone battery health at 100%. Because lithium-ion batteries will inevitably deteriorate over time, you should follow these tips to maintain your battery. If everything fails, Apple will replace the battery for you. What’s your iPhone’s battery health percentage? Let me know in the comment below.

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