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HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
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Los Angeles, Ca
I, much like you, live in a daily grind where I can theoretically keep my iPhone and iPad (and MacBook) plugged in 24 hours a day.

When I'm at work i can have my iOS devices plugged in at my desk the entire time. When I'm at home I can have my devices plugged in the living room the entire time. When I'm driving to and from wor or going anywhere else I can have my devices plugged in the entire drive.

I'm wondering if having my Apple devices plugged in all the time would potentially hurt my fancy products. I ask because I tether my data from my iPhone to both my iPad and MacBook at all hours of the day.

Essentially I'm tethering 20 hours a day.
 
I have my iPhone plugged in for about 6 or more hours with the screen on every night (nightstand clock/alarm). I've never had an issue with the battery or with the batteries of the three devices before it that used to do this role. I tend not to plug it back in until bed time however.

So I don't see any issue.

Perhaps others might.
 
I have my iPhone plugged in for about 6 or more hours with the screen on every night (nightstand clock/alarm). I've never had an issue with the battery or with the batteries of the three devices before it that used to do this role. I tend not to plug it back in until bed time however.

So I don't see any issue.

Perhaps others might.

Thank you for the quick response.

I'm wondering if continually having it plugged in will degrade the battery over time.
 
Thank you for the quick response.

I'm wondering if continually having it plugged in will degrade the battery over time.
I don't think so.

I've never had issues with battery degradation on any of the devices I have used in this manner. In the case of my iPhone 6s+ it's been 1.5 years of being plugged in with the screen on every night.

I really don't think it will matter. The device only charges until full, then stops, then restarts when charge falls again. Modern battery tech won't allow an overcharge.

Periodically, you might wish to discharge the battery though and then let it recharge.
 
My Mac is connected to power almost 24/7 and it's battery degrades much slower than iPhone, which is plugged in mainly for recharge. So here, we can see the difference. Also, modern hardware can protect battery from over charging issue properly.
 
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Keeping the devices at 100% charge doesn't hurt them as much as it used to 10 years ago. I've kept my Macbook Air plugged in almost 100% for its 1.5?+ year life and it still has 101% life left. My phones spend most of their lives at or near 100% since I work at a desk - and their health after 250+ cycles is 100%.

Probably wouldn't hurt to cycle them (take them down to 40% (not 0%)) once or twice a month. http://batteryuniversity.com/ if you have a lot of free time.

To answer your question, With Apple Products? No. Doesn't seem to hurt them in my experience.
 
Or have you considered a dedicated USB cellular dongle?

I use one as fall-back for my home Internet. It's great.
 
I see what you mean.
How about this: I never unplug my iMac, it's running 24/7. No issues. . . no problems. Runs for years. I'd imagine the same could be said for an iPhone.
Seems like that falls under a similar type of category.
 
I see what you mean.
How about this: I never unplug my iMac, it's running 24/7. No issues. . . no problems. Runs for years. I'd imagine the same could be said for an iPhone.
How is that a comparison. We are talking about a battery. A clock and iMac don't have batteries.
[doublepost=1495078466][/doublepost]OP. Technically leaving a your battery plugged in 24/7 will decrease he health of the battery. Batteries like to be used, otherwise they lose health. How much. No one really knows. But it's not recommended to keep plugged in 24/7. At least let it drop down to 50-60% every couple days to let it be used.
 
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After reading all the comments, it isn't a problem to leave our phones charge most of the time, I thought that every time we plug to the charger it count down number of charging times a phone has, the higher the count, the less great the battery life cycle would be. That is what I hv read in some threads. So far, I try not to plug the charger on unless is down at least 40-50%. But now I feel more confident to plug it on to keep it full charge and not worry abt being low charge and the charging count down.
 
After reading all the comments, it isn't a problem to leave our phones charge most of the time, I thought that every time we plug to the charger it count down number of charging times a phone has, the higher the count, the less great the battery life cycle would be. That is what I hv read in some threads. So far, I try not to plug the charger on unless is down at least 40-50%. But now I feel more confident to plug it on to keep it full charge and not worry abt being low charge and the charging count down.

Plugging in your phone at 75% and charging to 100% is only a quarter cycle. A full cycle would be 0%-100% or 4 quarter charges.

Check out the bottom of https://www.apple.com/batteries/why-lithium-ion/

See how it's still one charge cycle ?

So it is definitely not a cycle every time you plug in unless you only plug in at 0%. Cool, huh? :)
 
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I read where it might be an issue with the iPhone itself. . . not a battery issue. Taking that into account though I'd imagine it would be like keeping your laptop plugged in all the time (like it's a base computer and isn't being used as a portable). I also can't see where that would be a problem.
 
I, much like you, live in a daily grind where I can theoretically keep my iPhone and iPad (and MacBook) plugged in 24 hours a day.

When I'm at work i can have my iOS devices plugged in at my desk the entire time. When I'm at home I can have my devices plugged in the living room the entire time. When I'm driving to and from wor or going anywhere else I can have my devices plugged in the entire drive.

I'm wondering if having my Apple devices plugged in all the time would potentially hurt my fancy products. I ask because I tether my data from my iPhone to both my iPad and MacBook at all hours of the day.

Essentially I'm tethering 20 hours a day.


Keeping a device that runs on rechargeable battery plugged into wall power 24/7 - will decrease it's health as Mlrollin91 said. But it sounds like you're not doing that - as you're still moving your devices from the home, to the car, to the office etc running them on battery, no matter how little.

Example - a few years ago my friends desktop computer died so I gave her my MBP 17" to use as a replacement. I figured since it was portable it would be better for her. She instead, put it on her desk, plugged into wall power for over a year without ever removing the power or using the battery. When I asked for it back the battery was busted. It was showing I think a 'X' up in the task bar for the battery status - and wouldn't last longer than 20 minutes on a full charge anymore. No amount of reconditioning would help the battery. Prior to that - the battery only had about 100 cycles on it and lasted a good 5-7 hours depending on portable use.

Same thing happened to an iPod Nano of mine. Years ago I plugged it into a music dock - never took it out again for years (used iPhone instead) and when I finally did take it out to give to my daughter - the battery would not last more than 7 minutes.
 
I've been doing this for years as I haven't had internet since I moved into my apartment almost 4 years ago and my batteries are in better shape than my sisters'. On multiple phones they've had their batteries dying at 20-30%, not lasting very long, etc. because they let their phones die so much while mine is almost always topped up.

So no, you shouldn't have any issues keeping your phone plugged in with the hotspot turned on the majority of the day.
 
Its my understanding that, once fully charged and still connected to power, iOS stops sucking power and lets the battery drain a little (while still showing 100% on the battery indicator so as not to concern people that their device/cable is broken) before taking in power again and fully charging, and then repeating that cycle until the device is unplugged.

I seem to have John Gruber's voice in my head as I type this so I think I read it on his site or heard it on his podcast.
 
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