As lithium-ion batteries wear down due to age, temperature, and usage they have trouble holding a charge. It’s up to you as the owner of a device to maintain its battery’s health—unless you have Apple products.
Apple’s Optimized Battery Charging on iPhone and battery health management on MacBooks do a lot of heavy lifting to make sure your devices’ batteries hold long charges for a long time. Let us tell you all about it below.
How Optimized Battery Charging Works
Optimized Battery Charging (or battery health management) is a feature that was introduced in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15.15. It’s a piece of software that checks on your iPhone and Mac battery health and prevents chemical aging of the batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable, but only to a certain point. As they age, the batteries get less effective at holding charges. This aging process doesn’t just happen over time though. It is accelerated chemically as well by factors within and around a battery.
For example, keeping a lithium-ion battery very cold or very hot causes such chemical aging. Cold slows down internal reactions inside of a battery while heat increases their frequency. Both instances wear the battery down internally and reduce the battery’s ability to hold a charge over time.
This is part of why it’s important to make sure your MacBook Air doesn’t overheat.
How you charge and use a device with a lithium-ion battery also affects its chemical age. Lithium-ion batteries tend to degrade when they’re charged over 80% or get below 20% a lot of the time.
So, if you charge your iPhone overnight you’re possibly harming the battery. Unless you use Optimized Battery Charging.
Optimizing Battery Charging was designed specifically to help iPhones and Macs to charge in ways that won’t damage their batteries.
First, the feature figures out the daily charging routine of your iPhone or Mac. It also figures out the usual times you start using the device throughout the day.
Once it knows when a charging cord is regularly left in for a long period of time, like overnight, the program ensures your device’s battery isn’t charged beyond 80% until close to a time when you’ll use the device again. For overnight charging that would be close to the time when you wake up.
Should You Use Optimized Battery Charging?
Apple certainly recommends keeping Optimized Battery Charging turned on to ensure your iPhone and Mac batteries last a long time. But there have been reports that the feature has a significant bug.
This bug has caused some iPhone batteries to drain prematurely rather than maintain their charge, as Optimized Battery Charging is supposed to help with long term.
This is a notable risk. But it’s not a widely reported error, and actually monitoring battery cycles and charging on a good schedule can be a lot more difficult on your own.
Overall, we agree with Apple that it’s a great feature to have and use. Particularly alongside using our tips for keeping your iPhone battery from draining and these apps that improve a MacBook’s battery life.
Combined, these tips should keep your lithium-ion batteries to last a good long time. And they should help you notice if sudden drains are happening to your battery as well!
To make sure you have Optimized Battery Charging turned on, or to turn if off because you have noticed the drain, check out the next sections to see how to access the feature on an iPhone or Mac.
How to Turn Optimized Battery Charging On or Off on an iPhone
To turn Optimized Battery Charging on or off on your iPhone, first tap on Settings. Scroll down to Battery, then tap on Battery Health.
In here, you’ll see your iPhone battery’s maximum charge capacity, and a report on whether your iPhone battery is working at peak performance. Below both of those, you’ll find the Optimized Battery Charging switch. Turn it on or off as you see fit!
When Optimized Battery Charging is turned on and you’re charging your phone for an extended period of time, you should see a notification on your Lock Screen that gives the time when your phone should be done charging.
If you want to turn Optimized Battery Charging off at that point, tap and hold the notification, and tap Charge Now. Your phone will charge normally, rather than pausing for a time when it reaches 80%.
How to Turn Optimized Battery Charging On or Off on a Mac
To turn Optimized Battery Charging on or off on your Mac, open System Preferences and click on Battery.
In the menu on the left of the window, select Battery. Check or uncheck the Optimized battery charging box to turn Optimized Battery Charging on or off.
To really ensure your Mac battery is doing well, also click on the Battery Health button at the bottom of the window, and make sure the Manage battery longevity box is checked. Or uncheck it and click Turn Off to ensure no Optimized Battery Charging or battery management is taking place.
Apple Is Taking Care of Its Products
You can do a lot to ensure a lithium-ion battery you own has a long lifespan. Apple is making that easier with Optimized Battery Charging in iPhones and Macs.
It’s a feature that’s worth keeping turned on for your devices, and doing in tandem with other battery health care. Keep yourself from needing to buy replacement batteries or new devices by taking care of what you have, and turn on Optimized Battery Charging today.
