Can someone confirm, does having “Significant locations” affect/disable Optimized Battery Charging from functioning properly?

[Benz63amg]

I’ve read this a while back here on the forum and would like to confirm if that’s the case because if it isn’t then I’ll just then off significant locations as I have no need for that feature whatsoever and could save whole battery life by disabling it while I’m at it

 

[iStorm]

Yes, it's required. From Apple's own support page:

If Optimized Battery Charging doesn't activate​

Optimized charging is designed to engage only in locations where you spend the most time, such as your home and place of work. The feature doesn't engage when your usage habits are more variable, such as when you travel. Because of this, some location settings must be enabled for Optimized Battery Charging to activate.* None of the location information used for this feature is sent to Apple.

Follow these steps:

• Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and turn on Location Services.
• Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services and turn on System Customization.
• Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations and turn on Significant Locations.

 

[Benz63amg]

Yes, it's required. From Apple's own support page:

Thank u for confirming. I wanted to make sure it was the same case on iOS 18.

 

[gwang73]

Yes, that is what Apple publishes, but I've been using Optimized Battery Charging in the past with Significant Locations turned off from iOS 13 with it "mostly" working. Rarely but sometimes an update will break it though.

Was working fine on iOS 17 until either 17.5 or 17.6 broke it and I had to turn on Significant Locations for it to work again but it worked on older iOS 17 versions. I've just left it on and notice no additional battery drain.

Here's a post stating iOS 18.0 works with Sig.Locations turned off. I haven't tried it myself though.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-18-beta-8-bug-fixes-changes-and-improvements.2434614/post-33348125

 

[newellj]

It (80% limit with Significant Locations turned off) was working for me all the way through 17.6.1 on a 15PM. I turned Significant Locations back on with my new 16PM. I'll turn it off and see what happens tonight.

 

[iStorm]

It (80% limit with Significant Locations turned off) was working for me all the way through 17.6.1 on a 15PM. I turned Significant Locations back on with my new 16PM. I'll turn it off and see what happens tonight.

The 80% Limit is something else. It's not the same thing as Optimized Charging and isn't dependent on Significant Locations. Optimized Charging is when it charges to 80% and then finishes charging to 100% shortly before it predicts you'll be using the phone (i.e. right before you wake up). It does this when it senses your charging routine in a familiar place.

 

[azhava]

The 80% Limit is something else. It's not the same thing as Optimized Charging and isn't dependent on Significant Locations. Optimized Charging is when it charges to 80% and then finishes charging to 100% shortly before it predicts you'll be using the phone (i.e. right before you wake up). It does this when it senses your charging routine in a familiar place.

...and the two are mutually exclusive. If you have Optimized Charging on, you can't use the 80% (or whatever) limit. If you're using the Charging Limit, you can't use Optimized Charging.

 

[gwang73]

I turned off Significant Locations yesterday and Optimized Charging is still working. I didn't clear the history and just left it there.

 

[yukari]

It's required, but for me, Optimized Charging has never worked.

 

[dallastigers]

I’ve read this a while back here on the forum and would like to confirm if that’s the case because if it isn’t then I’ll just then off significant locations as I have no need for that feature whatsoever and could save whole battery life by disabling it while I’m at it

The overnight charge limit of 80% until close to wake-up and/or normal use of phone works for me with significant locations turned off. If I wake up and check something on phone there is a Lock Screen notification giving me a time it will fully charged or something like that. Overnight is the only time optimizing charging operates.

I don’t know if it only works at home overnight or does it every night regardless of my location as I never looked at it elsewhere.

Home address is in contacts and also appears on Maps, so it theoretically could be limited to home address even with significant locations turned off and not happen overnight anywhere else. I just don’t know.

 

[TonyC28]

Does anyone know if the behavior that guides optimized charging would transfer to a new iPhone? Since getting my iPhone 16 Pro I don’t think I’ve seen optimized charging yet.

 

[azhava]

Does anyone know if the behavior that guides optimized charging would transfer to a new iPhone? Since getting my iPhone 16 Pro I don’t think I’ve seen optimized charging yet.

No. The new phone has to "learn" your charging habits from scratch. I used Optimized Charging on my 13 Pro for quite a while, but now my 16 Pro is still learning and isn't using it yet.

 

[gwang73]

The overnight charge limit of 80% until close to wake-up and/or normal use of phone works for me with significant locations turned off. If I wake up and check something on phone there is a Lock Screen notification giving me a time it will fully charged or something like that. Overnight is the only time optimizing charging operates.

I don’t know if it only works at home overnight or does it every night regardless of my location as I never looked at it elsewhere.

Home address is in contacts and also appears on Maps, so it theoretically could be limited to home address even with significant locations turned off and not happen overnight anywhere else. I just don’t know.

I was away for the weekend and it still worked overnight with significant locations turned off.