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t0m3k

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 30, 2012
38
16
I've decided to finally upgrade to 13 Pro Max from my 6s+.
What are the best practices to ensure that the battery remains healthy and doesn't degrade quickly?
 
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IHaha

macrumors newbie
Sep 15, 2021
2
3
Most of the time: avoid charging above 80%, avoid letting it fall below 40%, once a month let phone battery die and then charge it to 100%. Had my iPhone 12 Pro for about a year, maintained this charging routine and still at 100% battery life.
 

ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,121
10,912
Try this:


That’s straight from the manufacturer. Other than that, disregard internet chatter from self proclaimed battery experts and just charge when needed. Battery service is also available through Apple and in many locations that’s a same-day swap that doesn’t break the bank.
 
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now i see it

macrumors G4
Jan 2, 2002
11,257
24,289
The absolute best thing you can do to to a lithium ion battery to ensure it has the longest possible life span is keep it at 40% charge all the time and never use it.
Every percentage point you go above and below that magical number accelerates its aging.
Obviously you've got to use the phone, so it's up to your temperament as to how fastidious you can be with keeping the battery charge within the sweet spot (50-75%).

Rule of thumb- avoid charging to 100% if at all possible and try not to run the battery down to below 20% on a regular basis.

The funnest way to use an iPhone is to not pay attention to battery usage or charging at all and just replace the battery several years down the line when it obviously doesn't last as long as it used to.
 

HEK

macrumors 68040
Sep 24, 2013
3,547
6,080
US Eastern time zone
Most of the time: avoid charging above 80%, avoid letting it fall below 40%, once a month let phone battery die and then charge it to 100%. Had my iPhone 12 Pro for about a year, maintained this charging routine and still at 100% battery life.
I charge whenever I feel like it. Pay little to no attention to battery charge level. Don’t discharge the phone to die every month. Always go above 80% and below 40%. My iphone battery life on one year old 12 pro max is 99%. Seems like a lot of hassle for 1% difference, assuming the battery life estimation accuracy is actually within 1%. Have better things to do with life than worry about 1% battery health. Get new phone every year anyway.
 

Tsepz

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2013
4,889
4,698
Johannesburg, South Africa
I've decided to finally upgrade to 13 Pro Max from my 6s+.
What are the best practices to ensure that the battery remains healthy and doesn't degrade quickly?

Enjoy your phone and don’t think about this. People will give you a varying number of suggestions many of which mean hovering over your phone to ensure it doesn’t charge over a certain percentage or using a slower charger or some other ridiculous thing.

Enjoy the phone and change the battery when you feel it’s significantly deteriorated.

The battery health indicator is incredibly unreliable, some people stay on 100% for a whole year and then see a huge drop and blame an iOS update, other people see a drop within a month and come here to create endless topics panicking that their life is over as their iPhone battery health number is not where they want it to be. Others see a consistent drop monthly or on every iOS update.

All of it unnecessary stress over a device you should just enjoy.
 
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IHaha

macrumors newbie
Sep 15, 2021
2
3
I charge whenever I feel like it. Pay little to no attention to battery charge level. Don’t discharge the phone to die every month. Always go above 80% and below 40%. My iphone battery life on one year old 12 pro max is 99%. Seems like a lot of hassle for 1% difference, assuming the battery life estimation accuracy is actually within 1%. Have better things to do with life than worry about 1% battery health. Get new phone every year anyway.
 

bnekic

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2013
1,090
336
Cleveland, OH
This is where I’m at on my 12 Pro Max I got at launch. I follow no special charging routines just charge whenever I want.

e1867becd710192b616d68f113607a6a.jpg
 

Vlad Soare

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2019
675
652
Bucharest, Romania
My 21 month old iPhone 11 Pro Max 64GB's battery health is 93%. Did I do good?
Nope. You can do better. Mine was at 97% after 30 months. :p
But then the phone itself died suddenly, without any prior warning sign. Now it's just a beautiful paperweight with a healthy battery. ?
 
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GloriousAndrew

macrumors regular
Oct 20, 2017
242
295
Magsafe / wireless charging hurts battery, lone is still at 100% after 10months
I don't do either. I suspect it is because I do a significant amount of Apple CarPlay. Plus I leave it on the charger overnight. So it spends a lot of time sitting at 100%.
 

warpdrive

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2013
186
282
I'm going to test the 80-40 theory with my next phone. The articles on Lithium Ion batteries is very clear, you can get up to TWICE as much full charging cycles if you never charge your battery above 80%

Thanks to iOS Shortcuts, you can actually control home devices with automation now based on battery level.
So I have a Shortcuts automation script turn OFF a Homekit SmartSwitch when the battery hits 80%, and turn ON the smartswitch when it goes below 50. The charger is plugged into the smartswitch. This means I will never charge my phone more than 80%. With the high battery capacity, I won't miss the extra 20% loss 90% of my daily usage (I still may top it up a bit more if I know I'll be out for a long time during the day)

I have a launch XS Max and it's at 95%. The Optimized Battery Charging feature by itself seems to be helping because my previous iPhone degraded faster than that). I made sure I put the phone on the charger every night and it's charged by morning.
 

penrua

macrumors member
Sep 16, 2021
64
94
My iPhone XR (bought on launch) is at 88% battery health.

I have Optimised Charging on, but do not pay attention to any charging cycles. In recent times, I charge it overnight and it usually drops to 20% late evening / night when we're watching TV so I'll charge it a bit then to keep it going and then charge overnight.

Perhaps I'll look into this 40/80 theory.

In a sense, you'd have thought Apple would implement software to help with the longevity of their batteries. Of course it's a revenue stream (i.e., new phone or even a battery replacement) but at the same time that's a lot of resources.
 

Vlad Soare

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2019
675
652
Bucharest, Romania
The 40-80 theory is all nice and good if your phone has decent battery capacity. I could easily do it with my late Xs, which used to lose about 25% to 30% every 24 hours. But now I have an SE, which seems to lose more than 40% just from morning till afternoon. So I'm afraid I'll have to ditch any kind of good practices and just charge it to 100% every day.
 

Ifti

macrumors 601
Dec 14, 2010
4,044
2,609
UK
My 11 Pro Max 256GB purchased at launch is currently at 89% battery capacity.
I just stuck it on charge whenever I felt like it, and left it to 100% most times - sometimes leaving it on charge overnight etc. I didn't care about battery at all - very rarely checked battery health.

2 years later I'm trading in to MM. The battery capacity hasn't changed my offer price whatsoever. So why should I have cared or got stressed about charging carefully for the past 2 years?!

If I kept the phone for longer, I'd just replace the battery. Simples.
 

hirsthirst

macrumors 6502a
Nov 3, 2008
614
912
UK
Everyone one going to a lot of trouble to deliberately not charge past 80% when they'd be FURIOUS if their battery (eventually) degraded to 80% capacity.
 
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hirsthirst

macrumors 6502a
Nov 3, 2008
614
912
UK
Everyone one going to a lot of trouble to deliberately not charge past 80% when they'd be FURIOUS if their battery (eventually) degraded to 80% capacity.

having said that my 12 Pro battery got fried on wireless in-car charging / CarPlay over several days in Croatia at >34'C this summer and is now at 88% in less than a year which I am unimpressed by.

I have a lot of Hue lights + Hub already, so might add a smart plug & try this Shortcut on my new 13 & will definitely be trying to keep the phone cooler, or at least mindful of overheating.
 
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