How to Check iPhone Battery Health

Similar to how overworked humans get burnt out without proper rest and recharging, the iPhone’s battery can also deteriorate over time when not maintained well enough.

If you notice signs that your iPhone is constantly running on low power, your full charge drains faster, or that it takes much longer to get a full charge compared to when you first purchased the device, then there might be something wrong with your iPhone’s battery health.

Below, we discuss the different tools you can use to monitor your battery’s health, how to customize your battery settings, and your options if you have a faulty battery.

How To Check Your iPhone’s Battery Health

You can check your iPhone’s battery health by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health (or Battery Health & Charging).

Maximum Capacity

This battery health section measures the battery capacity relative to when it was brand new. When the battery health deteriorates, it will naturally have a lower capacity. The lower the capacity, the fewer hours you can use it between charges.

It is perfectly normal to have the capacity lower down to 80% when it reaches 500 complete charge cycles. Anything lower is a sign of a weak battery.

Peak Performance Capability

This section will indicate whether or not your battery is supporting normal peak performance levels.

Important Battery Message

Here, your device will send alerts if it is unable to determine battery health due to improper installation, if your battery health is poor, or if it is a genuine Apple battery.

Battery Life Numbers and Graphs

The section under Settings > Battery can show your usage and charge activity. Below this, you can also see your battery usage by app to determine which ones are using up most of the power.

Using Third Party Apps

Some third party apps may offer more features than those built into the iPhone. You may try out the following:

Clean Battery
Zen Battery
Battery Doctor – Battery Saver
Battery HD+

How To Check Your iPhone’s Battery Usage Information

Your iPhone has a lot of built-in information that can help you check and monitor your battery’s usage. You can see all of the details through Settings and clicking on Battery.

Background Activity

This section shows you which apps are running in the background that are eating up power. You can turn off the feature that allows apps to run in the background in order to preserve battery life.

Settings > General > Background App Refresh > then choose Wi-Fi or Off

Location and Background Location

This section shows the apps that are using location services, which drains battery life faster. You can turn off Location Services through:

Settings > Privacy > Location Services

If you wish to turn the feature off in certain apps only, you can see the list of apps using Location Services under the section. You can toggle the on/ off switch right next to them.

Home & Lock Screen

This section shows if your Home or Lock Screens were awakened by your device through notifications. With frequent wakes, the battery can get drained. You can turn this off under the Notifications settings.

No Mobile Coverage and Low Signal

This section shows if you used your device in low-signal conditions, which makes your battery work harder. When in areas with little to no signal, you may turn on Airplane Mode to preserve battery life.

How To Maximise Your iPhone’s Battery Lifespan

Your iPhone’s “battery life” pertains to how long you can use it before it needs to be recharged. However, its “lifespan” is the total amount of time the battery can be used before it needs a replacement.

The lifespan of your battery is more than just how long you’ve been using it for. It’s also about the number of times it’s been charged, how it has been charged, and how well it has been taken care of. There are ways to lengthen the lifespan of the battery and maximise its performance, such as:

Update To The Latest Software

Some of the time, software updates provided by Apple include energy-saving technologies, which can further assist your device while running the latest version.

Avoid leaving your phone in hot environments

The iPhone and its components perform best in room temperature, which is somewhere between 16° to 22° C. It is important not to directly expose your device to temperatures higher than 35° C as this can affect the capacity of the battery.

Remove it from its case when using heat-retaining materials

If your phone case is made up of plastic, silicone, or other materials that are known to retain heat, take the device out of the case for optimized battery charging. This helps in preventing it from overheating.

When storing for a long time, leave it half-charged

If you intend to leave your device unused for a while, do not fully charge or fully discharge it. By having it fully discharged, you run the risk of leaving it in a deep discharged state once energy runs out. By having it fully charged, the battery may end up losing capacity. A sweet spot is to leave it at around 50%.

Moreover, keep it in a cool and moisture-free environment and power it down using the additional battery settings (more on that later).

How To Customise Your Battery Settings

There are different settings that you can customise on your iPhone settings and also specifically under your battery settings that can help prolong its life and lifespan. The following are some things you can try out:

Turn on Auto-Brightness

It may seem like a small detail, but your screen’s brightness actually eats up a lot of your battery. A great way to control this is by either dimming your screen until you are comfortable, or by turning on Auto-Brightness. Auto-Brightness means that your screen will automatically detect the lighting condition of your environment and adjust accordingly, having it dim down when you don’t need it too bright.

You can do so through the following steps:

Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Auto-Brightness ON

If you prefer to manually dim your screen, you may open the Control Centre and drag the Brightness slider to your liking.

Use Wi-Fi by default

Mobile data uses more power than a Wi-Fi connection. Whenever possible, set Wi-Fi as your default source of Internet.

Enable Low Power Mode

As mentioned above, you can power down your iPhone through the Low Power Mode. This setting automatically reduces brightness level, optimises device performance, and minimises system animations. All of your apps will no longer download content in the background and standby features will be temporarily disabled. These will all revert back to normal and Low Power Mode will automatically turn off once your iPhone gets charged up.

You can manually turn on Low Power Mode by going to Settings then Battery. Similarly, your iPhone sends alerts once it hits 20% and again at 10% battery life. With each alert comes the option of activating Low Power Mode with just a click of a button

What To Do in Case Of A Faulty Battery

If your iPhone battery’s health is faulty and affecting your device’s performance, then it may be more practical to have it replaced by professionals.

Here at Square Repair, we have ample experience in replacing iPhone batteries of various models. Whether you have a recent iPhone 12 model or an old iPhone 5s model, we can take care of your faulty battery needs at an affordable price and in less than an hour!

We also service other common iPhone models such as: