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Calibrating Battery; Is It Necessary ?
- Thread starter venomx999
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You mean run it down to zero or near so? I've down that many times and got zero out of it, afaik.
Yup thats what i meant, and thats what i thought.
I tried it on my old 4S and it didn't do anything lol
Yes it does become necessary from time to time. The reason? Because the battery meter (software) gets out of sync with the actual battery capacity and this gets the two back in sync with each other. Typically due to iOS updates but can also happen if a user never runs down and always charging up. There used to be an Apple KB about this but cant seem to find it now. But this has been known for some time to help with reported battery issues. Basically the software thinks the battery is done when there is still charge left. A good symptom is run it down and notice it hits 1% and may stay there for quite some time when it had been dropping pretty regular.
Yeah, i saw an article that used to be on the Apple website recommending that users calibrate from time to time.
Agreed with above! Once a month - run down to under 9% then charge to an hour past 100%. This resets battery meter. Modern LiOn batteries don’t need “conditioning” like NiCad batteries did. But they do need meter calibration.
Huge difference still noticeable here.. on all the newest phones.
After calibration - much smoother even discharge cycle.. numbers-wise. No more hanging on 4% for 4 hours stuff. Or going 100% to 90% in an hour then slower.
Huge difference still noticeable here.. on all the newest phones.
After calibration - much smoother even discharge cycle.. numbers-wise. No more hanging on 4% for 4 hours stuff. Or going 100% to 90% in an hour then slower.
Mine stays at 100% for ages then goes down quicker once it reaches 99%, is this normal ? iPhone SE brand new
Always have to calibrate the battery of a brand new phone. Let it run down to under 9% twice in fact / then you’ll see improvement in meter.
That actually is normal and will always be the case, as Apple’s software will always say 100% when in reality the battery is charged between 95-100%.
When you leave it plugged in once the battery indicator shows 100%, it trickle charges up to 100% then slowly discharges to 95%. It will do this back and forth until you unplug your device.
You can test this with CoconutBattery on a Mac. This is the reason why many times your phone will stay at 100% for an hour and then drop faster. Also the reason why sometimes your battery indicator goes from 100% to 99% as soon as you unplug it. Just depends upon what point the trickle charge was at when you unplugged.
In spite of reports here that "calibrating" the "battery" makes a difference, I am curious whether anyone here has actual first hand knowledge (as opposed to speculation and/or hearsay) of how the iOS battery meter actually works.
I have been using lithium batteries in the RC model aircraft field for almost 20 years and we have always used voltage alone as a state of charge indication. No calibration to worry about, and reasonably accurate state of charge. Decent RC chargers and battery meters have a voltage >> state of charge conversion table in them and they read out directly in percent of charge so I see no reason why a phone should need to do anything more involved. I have always wondered why laptops (for example) needed to use coulomb counters to measure energy in/out (which CAN get out of sync easily).
So.... is it REALLY necessary to do anything to make the state of charge indication accurate?
Paul
I have been using lithium batteries in the RC model aircraft field for almost 20 years and we have always used voltage alone as a state of charge indication. No calibration to worry about, and reasonably accurate state of charge. Decent RC chargers and battery meters have a voltage >> state of charge conversion table in them and they read out directly in percent of charge so I see no reason why a phone should need to do anything more involved. I have always wondered why laptops (for example) needed to use coulomb counters to measure energy in/out (which CAN get out of sync easily).
So.... is it REALLY necessary to do anything to make the state of charge indication accurate?
Paul
Untitled by simmy sarkaria, on FlickrI have been playing a load of video games and always keep the phone on 100% brightness Is my battery life ok ?
Right on their main tech spec page.
I book marked it a while back. Will look again.
Yes. Calibrate the “meter” of the battery. Bookmarked it a while ago. Will try and find for you.
As I recall, there used to be mention of that in their online battery information section, but that got changed a little while back: https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/
I would be very interested to see a current statement from Apple that the battery meter needs calibration.
In the mean time, lithium cells have VERY tightly defined "full" and "empty" voltages that do not vary from one cell to the next (given the same chemistry), so the only requirement for accurate full and empty readings is a calibrated voltmeter. Since it is mandatory that any charging circuit be capable of accurate and absolute voltage readings, I still don't see the requirement for further "calibration". And especially not after something as trivial to the charging circuit as a reset or software upgrade.
One possibility I can think of might be that the battery meter has no connection to the charging circuit, reads an A/D that is repeatable but not calibrated and needs the charging circuit (which IS calibrated) to define the full charge point, thus defining the digital value that represents full charge. But I'm guessing.
Not saying anyone is wrong here..... just looking for hard information. This is one of those street knowledge "I read it on the internet" things that has bugged me for years, as people quote each other over and over without adding specific actual knowledge.
Paul
For the most part this is what Apple has as far as it comes to batteries:
https://www.apple.com/batteries/
I can say for sure that this method of calibrating the battery meter is legitimate and used to be recommended my Apple both online and at the Genius Bar. Not sure why they removed the online content.
Calibrating your battery will enable your device to estimate its remaining battery life more accurately...it will not make the battery last longer, or do it any good.
Anyone who says otherwise is an uneducated moron who knows nothing about modern lithium batteries.
Anyone who says otherwise is an uneducated moron who knows nothing about modern lithium batteries.
Hmmm. Interesting - that is the section and it bears no mention anymore. I have it screenshot with the mention.. I’ll post it. In Apples own pages. Wonder why they changed it?!
It’s very noticeable and repeatable still to this day. As soon as your battery starts dropping quickly from 10% to 1% and then sitting on 1% for hours.. Just do the meter calibration I described and it goes back to completely smooth from 100 done to 1. Verifiable every time on every phone. Weird that Apple would no longer mention it. It was exactly same on my X. First couple of times the battery seemed terrible on power consumption - down to 10% in under 10 hours. Then after two full charge cycles from under 9% up to two hours past 100%.. and boom 18 hours before a drop to 10%.. exact same usage pattern.
That’s what everyone on this thread is discussing, yet we’ve refrained from calling people uneducated morons. No one here claimed that it increases your battery life.