A strong iPhone battery equals a longer-lasting iPhone — plain and simple. Some things are out of your control when it comes to your phone’s battery. For instance, your device is going to grow older; that’s just the nature of owning a smartphone. With age, its battery will decline. The battery may need to eventually be replaced, or you may find that when the battery is up for replacement, you are ready to purchase a brand new phone.
But there are times when your battery shows its decline long before it should. The way you’ve been charging your device can have a lot to do with this. If you’re making these six battery-ruining iPhone charging mistakes, you may be prematurely ruining your battery and phone.
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3. Keep Your iPhone In A Cool Place
This one might sound obvious, but where you keep your iPhone can make a big difference, and if your iPhone more recently began overheating, the summer heat could have something to do with it. Avoid leaving it in direct sunlight, a hot car, or under blankets where heat can get trapped. Instead, keep it somewhere cool and shaded so the device has a better chance of maintaining a normal temperature.
"iPhone users who are struggling with an overheating problem should take care with when and where they use their phone," adds tech and marketing pro Arqam Zafar. "Avoid using it in direct sunlight on a hot day, and avoid streaming heavy media content or playing a game on it. Additionally, try to avoid using your phone while it is charging."
1. Limit Your Use Of Heavy Apps
Some apps can make your iPhone work overtime, like games, video-editing apps, streaming services, and other processor-heavy programs. If your phone is getting noticeably hot, try closing apps you aren't using and taking a break from the most demanding ones. It may be a simple way to give your device a chance to cool down.
"[Heavy apps] are one of the main culprits that make your phone get hot, as the internal software system battles to keep them running by draining your battery," explains tech pro Michael Frohlich. "When you open heavy apps like ChatGPT or high-end games, they consume much of the iPhone's CPU or GPU capacity, making it overwork and use up more power from the battery. Within a short while of this happening, the phone gets hot and slows down. The best you can do is uninstall some of these apps or limit their background running by removing or closing them in the settings to further solve this problem."
3. Allowing Your Power To Drain
Don’t wait until your phone has drained to 3 percent battery before charging it. Waiting too long can actually degrade your battery faster. The lithium-ion battery performs its best when kept between 40 and 80 percent charged. Instead of performing one lengthy charging session, try charging your phone more frequently throughout the day, but for shorter periods of time.
4. Leaving Your iPhone Charging Overnight
Even though times have changed since your phone could overcharge past 100 percent, it’s still not advisable to keep your phone on a charger all night long. Doing so can place an unnecessary burden and stress on your battery and cause trickle charging, which can lead to a heated battery. Opt for shorter charging sessions performed a few times throughout the day.
2. Disable Auto-Rotate On Home Screen Widget Stacks
Your iPhone's Home Screen widgets can contribute to battery-draining, heat-generating background activity. If you use widget stacks that automatically rotate, consider turning off the feature to reduce some unnecessary activity. It's a small adjustment, but every little bit can help if your phone is already running hot.
"Smart stacks are constantly running ML models in the background to determine which widgets to display based on your location/time," notes software developer Chongwei Chen. "This means that your Neural Engine is always awake, starving your chassis of the ability to shed heat. Turning off Smart Rotate and Widget Suggestions will instantly kill these background processes."
6. Using Your iPhone While Charging
Sometimes, it can be difficult to leave your iPhone completely alone and untouched while it's charging. Perhaps you need to use it for work or to make an important call. However, if you can, leaving your iPhone to rest as it charges can give your battery the rest and proper recharge it needs to stay healthy for longer.
"Using the phone heavily while it's charging causes the battery to heat up from both charging and active use simultaneously, which is worse than either alone," notes tech author Tyler Torres. "If you need to use your phone while charging, keep it out of a case, since cases trap heat and slow the phone's ability to dissipate it."
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