From its inception, Apple has dedicated a lot of improvements to its battery life performance for the iPhone. That said, not every user experiences maximum performance, as a lot of factors come into play, which makes the iPhone batteries become less lasting and facilitates other underlying issues.
It is, therefore, essential to calibrate the lithium-ion battery periodically. This article will express the need for calibrating the iPhone battery and show details of the process for maintaining your iPhone’s battery, which will ensure more accurate battery metering. This method also applies to the iPad and iPod Touch, as well as most other devices with lithium-ion “smart” batteries.
Why You Should Calibrate iPhone Batteries
Lithium-ion batteries degrade with time as they move on to undergo repeated charging and discharging cycles. Operating systems, such as iOS, track the battery’s operating range.
Regardless of wear and age, battery tracking requires occasional adjustment, and Battery calibration helps iOS re-calculate the range of battery life.
If you upgrade your iOS device and notice your battery last lesser or notice an inaccurate battery metering or unexpected shutdowns, then you may want to calibrate iPhone batteries before anything else.
Note: Calibration is not the same as regular charging practices.
How To Extend iPhone Battery Lifespan By Calibration
Every iOS update comes with new features, some of which often affect battery life. Apple’s engineers often improve some aspects of battery life with every released update, while also introducing battery-intensive features, such as background updates.
Allowing the battery to drain fully and recharge from 0% calibrates iOS to detect the full range of battery life and resets readings.
How To Calibrate the iPhone Battery
Here’s a Step By Step way to calibrate the iPhone Battery
Following the steps below will calibrate your battery and bring it to a lasting position for you to enjoy your iPhone to the fullest. If you are an on-call professional or hopelessly addicted to your iPhone, you might not be able to turn off your iPhone overnight or even for a few hours.
At the bare minimum, you need to drain the battery until the device shuts off, charge your iPhone to 100%, and reset it by holding down the sleep/wake and home buttons until you see the Apple logo.
Use Phone Till It Powers Off
Use your iPhone until it shuts off automatically. If it is near 20% on battery life and you want to drain it faster, turn on the flashlight, turn up screen brightness all the way, and play a video, preferably streaming from the Internet.
Leave Uncharged Overnight
After draining power off your battery, leave your iPhone to sit close to a 24-hrs without charging it to drain the battery even further.
Use Apple Recommended Cable To Charge
Plug your iPhone in and wait for it to power up. Make sure to use the recommended charger supplied by Apple or one that runs at the same wattage and amperage.
Power Off After Booting
For earlier iPhones, hold down the sleep/wake button and swipe “slide to power off” for newer devices, hold down volume key down and side button till you see ‘slide to power off’.
Charge For Three Hours
Let your iPhone charge for at least 3 hours. The older iPhone should be charged for 5 hours. The charge progress indicator is not displayed while the iPhone is turned off, but not to worry, it is working the process.
Turn Device Back On
With the charging cable still connected, press the sleep/wake button for about a second to start up your iPhone.
Hard Restart The Device
When the iPhone is back on, you will need to hard restart your device to complete calibration. For later devices, hold down the sleep/wake and home buttons until you see the Apple logo. If you have a newer iPhone, without a physical Home button, press the volume up and down, followed by the side button till you see the Apple logo. When your iPhone is back online, remove the charging cable.
Your Apple device will be calibrated if you follow these steps successfully.
Advantages Of Calibrating Your iPhone
Draining your iPhone’s battery is somewhat essential in ensuring healthy battery life, and it is also very applicable to almost every device running on smart lithium-ion battery chemistry.
The benefit of calibration outweighs running your iPhone down to 0% once every few months. Your device will have a more accurate battery meter. With more accurate battery metering, there won’t be any unpleasant surprises, such as missing that important conference call because your iPhone went from 30% to 5% in 30 minutes.
On the opposite side, some argue that fully charging an iPhone also damages the battery. Apple already has technology in place to carefully manage the last 20% of the charging process. Once your battery charge progresses over 80%, the iPhone’s power IC reduces charge current, so to calibrate iPhone batteries is equally safe.