How do you know when it's time to replace an iPhone's battery?
There's a lot of information out there about this. Most of it's misinformation, but there are some
telltale signs that we are going to show you right now.
The first one is, is it a bloated battery? If the screen is at all raised from the rest of
the body, then uh-oh, if you see any bulge at all, it's time to replace
your battery right now. I've seen them break the screens before,
so you want to fix it before you end up having to buy a whole new phone.
If your iPhone battery is swollen, it's a big deal and it's a bad thing.
That's why cell phone stores everywhere, including the Apple one, have fire safes in the back
so that if something goes wrong with the battery and they can catch on fire, they throw it
in the safe and shut the door. Next we're going to take a look at
iPhone battery health. Tap settings,
then scroll down to battery. Tap on that, then tap on
battery health and charging. And my battery's at 100%.
Just saying. After 10 months, 100% maximum capacity.
Is that accurate? No.
Because every lithium ion battery loses a little tiny bit of charge
every time it discharges from 100% to 0%.
Goes through one charge cycle, as Apple would call it.
Normal iPhone batteries are designed to retain 80% of their original charge after 500 charge
cycles. How close are you?
Well, there is a way to find out using a Siri shortcut that I made.
That's right. To check what your battery capacity is,
using my shortcut, tap back, back to settings, and then go to privacy and security.
Scroll all the way to the bottom. Did I tap back one more time than I had to?
Yes, I did. Sue me.
Then go to analytics and improvements. Tap on that.
Share iPhone and watch analytics has to be on. Tap analytics data.
Then one of these analytics at the top. With that, I'll just look at the
top to make sure it says iPhone OS. Then I can tap this little share button
and scroll down to battery stats. Tap on that.
Wait patiently. Your iPhone battery's real stats.
Maximum FCC, the original maximum capacity was 3,342.
The current maximum capacity, 3,179. After 195 cycles, relative to when it
was new, my battery capacity is at 95%. I'm actually doing pretty well because
if I'm supposed to be at 80% after 500 and I'm at 95 after 195, I'm beating ahead of the game.
So anyway, we have a whole other video about how to use this shortcut and you should go
watch that video because like literally tens of thousands of people have downloaded this
shortcut from us. Tens of thousands.
The next sign you might need a new battery is if your iPhone shuts off unexpectedly,
just randomly shuts all the way off. Not talking about apps crashing,
although that could theoretically be a sign. I'm talking about a serious problem where your
iPhone shuts off when you're using it. That's new battery time.
That's not going to be a software problem. That's supposed to happen.
And this brings us to BatteryGate, one of my favorite Apple gates back in 2016.
Apple was caught slowing down batteries on older iPhones to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
But it didn't make a lot of sense because older batteries are not necessarily defective
batteries just like older people are not defective.
Just because they have less capacity doesn't mean they can't deliver enough power to the
phone to make it run the way it's supposed to. Apple said they were doing people a favor.
In fact, they were just slowing down old phones, which just so happens to be one of
the main reasons why people buy new iPhones. So they paid bajillions of dollars in lawsuits,
hundreds of millions of dollars to settle it.
And next time you might need a new battery, your iPhone is getting super hot.
But it's not the first thing I would do if my iPhone was getting hot.
First thing I would do is try to figure out if it's a software problem.
D, if you restore it, we've got a video on that. Because it's not always a battery problem.
So don't go replacing your battery all willy-nilly and coming back here and leaving us comments
because, you know, you subscribed to the channel and you thought we steered you in the wrong
direction. And by the way, you should subscribe to
this channel because we won't steer you in the wrong direction.
It's right below the video, the subscribe button. That's where it is.
But just bear in mind, it's normal for your iPhone to get hot, especially if you're playing
a 3D game, which uses the processor a lot.
Phones get hot. There's no fan inside of this thing.
It's going to get hot. It's fine.
Unless it's hot all the time. Which brings us to our next
sign you might want to get a new battery. Sometimes if your phone battery degrades enough,
even though I said it was unlikely because it is unlikely, your phone can slow down.
So if it's super slow, a lot of people say that putting a new battery in it will make
it faster again. And that's true a lot of the time.
The problem can happen if somebody with, let's say, an iPhone 12, replaces their battery
expecting it to be as fast as it was the day it came out of the box.
But that's impossible because iOS, as it becomes more advanced, you update the software on
your phone, it runs slower and slower on older phones because there's more workload on the
phone's processor. And that's why I think that Apple
should let people downgrade so that their phones are as fast as they were the day they bought them.
Like, I get it, but I also, come on, Apple. Most of the time when an iPhone battery is
dying really quickly, it's not the battery itself, unlike what you'll read on the internet.
It's actually just the way the phone's software is set up.
Fortunately, we have a video all about that and people who join our channel get a free
PDF guide that shows you exactly how to set up your iPhone to get the maximum amount of
battery life possible. The next sign you might need to replace
your iPhone battery is if the battery percentage drops really fast or if, when it's dropping,
it skips large swaths of numbers, like you're using it and then you get to 38% and
then it just shuts off entirely. That's a situation where I would
do a DFU restore before I replace the battery. Fortunately, we have a whole video about that
that you should check out. It's pretty good.
You're going to like it. Just don't jump the gun and replace your
battery before you try the software fixes we talk about in the DFU restore.
Next thing you might need a new battery is if when you plug in your iPhone to charge,
it doesn't charge up to 100% or it refuses to charge.
This is a big deal. It's not bad because your iPhone's on borrowed
time at that point, but it can also be the cable or the charger.
So make sure you try different cable, different charger before you decide to replace the battery.
Before we talk about the best ways to go about fixing a battery, I want to touch on some
battery tips real quick that will help you maintain 100% battery health for as long as
possible. And that is,
first off, keep your iPhone cool. Never leave it in a hot car
because heat is the enemy of iPhone batteries. I saw a post from Brandon Butch on Twitter today.
He was talking about how his iPhone battery health suddenly started to drop during a heat
wave in Florida. Hmm.
Conspiracy or the weather? Probably just the weather.
So be careful. Keep your iPhone cool.
Next tip, use the original Apple charger or an Apple-branded charger to charge your iPhone.
And the reason I say that is because it's hard to know sometimes when third-party chargers
are going to deliver too much power too fast to your iPhone.
And iPhones have power regulation circuits built into them, yes, that regulate the power.
But they don't always work the way they're supposed to.
Sometimes that chip in the bottom of your phone can get fried and then it'll only charge
in very specific circumstances. So I always say you can
use any MFI certified cable. Doesn't have to be an Apple-branded cable,
but go for a good charger. Pay the money for it.
So you've decided it's time for a new battery. Well, if your phone is relatively new,
not damaged, and especially if it's under Apple care, make an appointment at the Apple store
and bring it in to the Genius Bar. If it's under warranty and you take it
to a third-party repair shop and they replace anything in your phone with a non-Apple part,
Apple will refuse to service your phone forever, disavowing it, and then you have to buy a new
one at full retail price, which is very expensive compared to the not-so-much money
it costs to replace an iPhone through Apple. To find out the price for your specific phone,
you can go to Apple's website, we'll drop a link in the description section below,
and use their little tool. It'll tell you how much it costs to replace
a battery without Apple care and with Apple care.
If you have an old iPhone and you don't want to go to the Apple store, well, can't blame
you. Any one of the mom-and-pop shops that
are out there that fix phones should be able to handle a battery replacement.
This is a repair that is not so difficult, so especially if the phone's older, I wouldn't
be too hesitant to go to iFixHelpRepair at Walmart.com.
All that said, most of the time when your iPhone battery life is awful, it has nothing
to do with the battery itself, it has to do with software on your phone.
Fortunately for you, we have a video that's all about how to optimize your iPhone battery
to get the most battery life that you possibly can.
And we also have some PDF guides, if you join our channel,
that might walk you through that process too.
Join the channel, hit subscribe, watch this video next.
See you soon. As we all know from this folk song,
normal is just a setting on the washing machine. Normal is just a
setting on the washing machine.