Summary
- Set your Charge Limit to 80% to limit total charge levels and prolong battery lifespan on supported iPhones.
- Set up Shortcuts to get alerts when the battery hits 80% for older iPhone models, so you can take your iPhone off the charger manually.
- Turn on Optimized Charging and use Low Power Mode for longer battery life when away from home.
A common reason many people upgrade their iPhones is due to poor battery life. There are a few ways that you can help to extend the lifespan of your iPhone battery, without having a huge impact on your daily usage.
Using the iPhone Charge Limit to Extend Battery Lifespan
If you have an iPhone 15 or newer, you can access a useful feature called Charge Limit that can help to extend your battery lifespan. If you own an older iPhone, you don’t have any Charge Limit settings, but you can use a workaround.
It’s a quirk of modern batteries that they are under the most strain when they’re either completely empty or fully charged. The ideal state for a lithium-ion battery in terms of maintaining its lifespan is 50% charge, and as your iPhone gets closer to 100% charge, it’s put under more strain.
The Charge Limit feature on iPhone 15 models and later allows you to set a limit for when your iPhone will stop charging. You can choose to have your iPhone stop charging at 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 100%.
Setting the Charge Limit to 80% is the best choice for prolonging the lifespan of your battery. The downside is that your iPhone will run out of battery much more quickly than it would if it had been fully charged. However, when I’m at home, I have easy access to a power outlet and a phone charger, so I have the Charge Limit set to 80% and charge my iPhone whenever it starts to get low.
Go to Settings > Battery > Charging. Swipe the Charge Limit left or right to select your maximum charging limit.
When connected to power, your iPhone battery will charge to that limit but no higher.
Getting a Notification When the Battery Hits 80%
If you’re using an older iPhone, you don’t have Charge Limit options. However, you can create an automation in the Shortcuts app that will send you an alert when your iPhone has reached a specific charging limit. Once you see the notification, you can remove your iPhone from the charger. This works even better if you have an Apple Watch, as you can see the notification even when you’re away from your iPhone.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap the “Automation” tab at the bottom of the screen. Tap the “+” (plus) icon to create a new automation.
Tap the search field, type “Battery” and select “Battery Level” from the results. Drag the slider until the values read the percentage at which you want to stop charging. In this example, I’m using 80%.
Tap “Rises Above 80%” and select “Run Immediately.”
Tap “Next,” swipe left through the “Get Started” suggestions, and tap “Show Notification.” Tap “Hello World” and replace it with the text that you want for your notification. Tap “Done” to save your automation.
Disable Mobile Data When at Home
If you’re using a Charge Limit below 100%, your battery life will be shorter than if you were using a full charge. There are other automations that you can set up to help you eke out your battery life a little longer between charges.
A common source of battery drain is your iPhone searching for mobile or Wi-Fi networks to connect to. To counter this, I use an automation that turns off my mobile data when I connect to my home Wi-Fi network and another that turns it back on when I disconnect from my home Wi-Fi network. That way, my iPhone isn’t constantly searching for a mobile network when I’m at home.
Open the Shortcuts app and select the “Automation” tab. Tap the “+” (plus) icon at the top right of the screen to create a new shortcut.
In the search field, type “Wi-Fi” and select “Wi-Fi’ from the results. Select “Network Joined” and tap “Choose.” Select your home Wi-Fi network.
Leave “Run After Connection Interruption” off and select “Run Immediately” to stop the automation from asking for your permission to turn off your mobile data.
Tap “Next” and under “Get Started” select “Set Mobile Data.” Tap “On” to change it to “Off.” Tap “Done” to save the automation.
Repeat the process using “Network Left” and “Turn Mobile Data On” to create a new automation that turns mobile data on when you leave your home network.
Enabling Optimized Charging
All of the methods above are fine when I’m at home and have easy access to charging, but what if I’m out and about, and won’t necessarily be able to charge when I want to? When I know I’m going to be away from home for the day, I will set my Charge Limit to 100% and charge my iPhone before I leave.
However, we’ve already learned that leaving your iPhone at close to 100% charge for too long can impact your battery lifespan. That’s why I always make sure Optimized Charging is on before I charge to 100%.
Optimized Charging learns your charging habits over time. If you charge your iPhone overnight for example, and get up at 7 am every day, Optimized Charging will charge your iPhone to 80% overnight, and then top up the final 20% just before you get out of bed at 7 am. This ensures that your iPhone spends as little time as possible at 100% charge.
For iPhone 15 models or later, go to Settings > Battery > Charging. Toggle Optimized Charging on. The option will only be available when the Charge Limit is set to 100%.
For older iPhones, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and toggle Optimized Battery Charging on.
Using Low Power Mode to Get Longer Battery Life
When I’m away from home, I want my iPhone to last as long as possible between charges. Your iPhone will prompt you to use Lower Power Mode when your battery reaches 20%, which will stretch out your battery life for longer but may not be enough to see you through until you can charge again.
I use another Shortcuts automation to turn on Low Power Mode automatically when my battery reaches 50%. I only turn this automation on when I’m away from home, as Low Power Mode does have some downsides. It can reduce your display brightness, limit your refresh rate, and stop automatic downloads, email fetch, and background app refresh.
I’ve found that using Low Power Mode when I hit 50% battery is a good compromise between usability and my battery lasting the day.
Open the Shortcuts app and select the “Automation” tab. Tap the “+” (plus) icon at the top right of the screen to create a new shortcut.
Type “Battery” in the search field and select “Battery Level” from the results. Select “Falls Below 50%” and select “Run Immediately.”
Tap “Next” and swipe right on the “Get Started” options. Select “Set Low Power Mode.”
Ensure that the action is set to “Turn Low Power Mode On” and tap “Done” to save it.
When you’re at home and want to disable the automation, select the automation in the Shortcuts app and tap “Automation.” Select “Don’t Run.”
The next time you want to use it, select “Run Immediately” to activate that automation again.
Keeping your iPhone battery healthy is important, because once its health declines, your battery life can take a serious hit, even at full charge. The tips above can help you to maintain your battery health without having to sacrifice too much usability.
