Partial discharge is the way to go. Batteries are on borrowed time from the get-go. The insides are in a state of decay that can't be helped. Over time, they're simply going to hold less and less power. If you've got an old iPhone 5 or 6 still in use and wonder why it's only got a charge for a few hours compared to the almost full day you got when it was new, that's why. The capacity diminishes over time. The only time you would want to go out of your way to drain a smartphone battery to zero is to recalibrate the internal sensor that displays your phone's battery level.

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• Charging your phone EVERY night could be damaging the battery, and this is why | phon-er.com.
• Charging when really hot or really cold.

It's hardly guaranteed—in fact, many people don't think it works at all —but it's recommended by some, especially if you've got a phone that hits 10 percent or even 20 or 30 percent and seems to abruptly die. Even if you do use the phone all the way to auto-shutdown, that may not mean the battery is at 0 percent. Leave the phone be for a few hours, if you believe this is worth doing.

Best Thing to Do : Plug the phone in before it asks you to enter a low-power mode ; iOS will ask you to turn that on when you hit 20 percent power. Plug it in when the phone is between 30 and 40 percent.

Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple (PH)

Phones will get to 80 percent quickly if you're doing a fast charge. Pull the plug at 80 to 90, as going to full percent when using a high-voltage charger can put some strain on the battery. Keep the phone battery charge between 30 and 80 percent to increase its lifespan.

Fast charging like we've seen in Android phones for a while finally arrived with the iPhone 8 and X. Before, it took an iPhone a couple of hours to go up 50 percent.

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Apple claims the 8 and up can increase 50 percent in only 30 minutes with the right chargers. Developing a "memory" was a problem with older nickel-cadmium NiCad batteries. That's where the whole "discharge the battery entirely" thing came from. Like we said, it's not necessary on Lithium-ion batteries. So why do Lithium-ion batteries not seem to last as long as they age? It's not about "memory," it's about capacity. Your smartphone battery over its lifetime degrades enough that in the same amount of time charging, a new phone could hit a full charge, while an older phone might only get to around 82 percent.

BatteryUniversity calls it "old man syndrome. Another way to look at it is that newer batteries are just hungrier to suck up all that power. Apple claims that "Apple Lithium-ion batteries are designed to hold at least 80 percent of their original capacity for a high number of charge cycles" but also admits that the amount differs from product to product. Apple iPhone batteries also support "fast charging" so they'll get to 80 percent pretty quickly. After 80, you'll see the capacity increase slowly, some of which is to prevent heat buildup, and that extends battery life.

But guess what? Fast charging isn't great for Lithium-ion battery either—it makes the corrosion happen even faster. Current iPhones come with a 5-watt that's 5 volts at 1.

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If you stick to the Qi-based wireless charging, keep in mind that most support 7. Best thing to do : Stop worrying about "memory. Use a slow charge. That means your charger should be lower voltage.

• Charging your phone EVERY night could be damaging the battery, and this is why | phon-er.com.
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Phone batteries measure their lifespan in "charge cycles. For example, if your phone is at 80 percent, you go down to 30 percent that's 50 percent , and you charge it back to 80 and use that 50 percent up again You could use 75 percent one day, 25 percent the next; that's one cycle. Expect iPhones to have a lifespan of to charge cycles again, that's not necessarily to times the phone is actually plugged in to charge.

If the phone's capacity has eroded enough, you may have to do that 50 percent charge-and-use a couple of times a day—and that's when the lifespan goes even faster. Here's Apple's graphic trying to explain it:.

While your phone battery doesn't have a "memory" that makes the capacity worse and worse, that limited lifespan means you may want to swap in a new battery or batteries, as you can see in the image below. In late , Apple admitted to secretly slowing down batteries on older iPhones in the name of "overall performance and prolonging the life of Battery replacements are generally best done by a professional.

Few new smartphones have a user-swappable battery. The newest one out with a removable battery is probably the Moto E4.

Why so few? Well, most Lithium-ion batteries perform effectively for around two to three years, and that's when the manufacturers would really like you to upgrade to a new phone. Or maybe it's because the average smartphone user in the US keeps a phone for around Why bother making it easy to swap a battery? The takeaway here : if you plan to swap phones every year or two, charge the stupid thing any way you want, as often as you want, and don't worry about the diminished capacity.

You've been charging your smartphone all wrong

However, if you want to stretch things out, use best practices for Lithium-Ion batteries as described above. It may help. Or, just take it in to and get a new battery installed every couple of years. Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 25 years ago.

Can you overcharge a phone battery? Get answers to all your tech questions here

See Full Bio. Press the Home button while plugged in to the charger to check the battery status. Connect your iPhone to a computer via the USB port to charge when you are using your computer. This can save power by using the USB port to charge the iPhone. Disconnect any peripheral USB devices to increase the charging rate. Avoid syncing or using the device while charging your iPhone. This can result in less efficient, longer charge times. Completely charge your iPhone until it reaches a percent charge at least once per month.

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Unplug the iPhone from the charger and use your iPhone until it powers down by itself. Recharge the iPhone to complete a charging cycle. This allows you to keep the electrons in the battery active and maintain the effectiveness and efficiency of the battery. This article was written by the It Still Works team, copy edited and fact checked through a multi-point auditing system, in efforts to ensure our readers only receive the best information. To submit your questions or ideas, or to simply learn more about It Still Works, contact us.

Step 3 Turn off notifications you don't need. Step 6 Turn on Airplane Mode when you are sleeping, in an area that can't receive calls or don't want to be disturbed. Step 8 Tap "Settings" and select the "Wi-Fi" option. Step 2 Connect your iPhone to a computer via the USB port to charge when you are using your computer. Maintaining Battery Step 1 Completely charge your iPhone until it reaches a percent charge at least once per month. Step 2 Unplug the iPhone from the charger and use your iPhone until it powers down by itself.

Warning Information in this article applies to iPhone 5 running iOS 6. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.