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How often do you plug your iPhone into iTunes vs a wall outlet to charge?

How Often do You Charge your iPhone using iTunes vs Charger?

  • iTunes most or all of the time.

    Votes: 12 20.7%

  • Wall charger most or all of the time.

    Votes: 21 36.2%

  • iTunes only to update/ wall charger all other times.

    Votes: 19 32.8%

  • Never use iTunes.

    Votes: 6 10.3%
  • Total voters
    58
braddick

braddick

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 28, 2009
3,954
1,076
Encinitas, CA
I'm in the habit of simply plugging my iPhone into my computer and charging/syncing via iTunes but I've got a friend at work that had something along the lines of 60+ updates pending on his iPhone for various apps installed.

I asked him why he doesn't update/upgrade his apps and he admits to never using iTunes since he purchased and activated his iPhone.

I suppose there is a middle ground to be found here, but it does have me curious how often do you use iTunes vs a wall charger to juice up your iPhone?
 
If I charge it during the day in the week, it's almost exclusively via the computer. During weekends and evenings/nights, it's almost exclusively with a charger plugged into the wall.

I don't think I've ever used iTunes to update an app though, why don't you (or your friend) just do it via the App Store in the actual phone?
 
^
I can't speak for him, but for me- I don't want to use my data as such unless I'm in an area with WIFI.
Simply easier (i.e.: out of habit) to do so at home with iTunes.
 
braddick said:
^
I can't speak for him, but for me- I don't want to use my data as such unless I'm in an area with WIFI.
Simply easier (i.e.: out of habit) to do so at home with iTunes.
Click to expand...

So when you get home to your wifi, instead of just opening the app to hit "update", you wait until you get to your computer, open iTunes, update the apps, wait for them to be downloaded, then sync your phone?

Sounds a bit tedious ;)
 
I haven't turned on my MacBook (the computer with iTunes) in like a month, so I almost NEVER sync my iPhone, let alone charge it off a computer. Even when I did use my MacBook, I never charged my phone from it.

I update all my apps via the App Store on my phone anyway.

There's a charger permanently plugged in under my desk for when I charge my phone.
 
Some say if you charge your phone via the wall outlet the battery drains faster.
Fact or fiction ?
I myself find it hard to belive.
 
Always with a wall outlet when I go to bed. Once with iTunes when the power was out. Had to sacrifice laptop power to get my phone working again. It's not like I needed my macbook during the outage. No power = no wifi.
 
I don't have itunes set to start up or sync automatically when I plug my iphone into iMac to charge. I only use itunes when I need to.
 
braddick said:
I'm in the habit of simply plugging my iPhone into my computer and charging/syncing via iTunes but I've got a friend at work that had something along the lines of 60+ updates pending on his iPhone for various apps installed.

I asked him why he doesn't update/upgrade his apps and he admits to never using iTunes since he purchased and activated his iPhone.

I suppose there is a middle ground to be found here, but it does have me curious how often do you use iTunes vs a wall charger to juice up your iPhone?
Click to expand...

I hardly every charge my iphone because I have a In Dash system in my car that charges it via USB so there is hardly ever a need to charge it! In regard to the update thing you don't have to update via itunes, you can just do it from your iphone over wifi so I'm not sure why his phone was never upgraded, haha.
 
With software updates, iCloud backups and library syncs OTA, why would I ever connect it to my computer anymore unless there is no convenient wall charger?
 
There is no one way, and whatever other do may not reflect what's best for you. For the most part, just do what's more convenient man, no need to make it into a E=MC^2 deal.

If WIFI Sync works every time (it doesn't) I wouldn't plug it in into the computer at all, EVER, for charging purposes. Wall charger (2 amp) vs USB port (1 amp) *should* charge faster.
 
braddick said:
I'm in the habit of simply plugging my iPhone into my computer and charging/syncing via iTunes but I've got a friend at work that had something along the lines of 60+ updates pending on his iPhone for various apps installed.

I asked him why he doesn't update/upgrade his apps and he admits to never using iTunes since he purchased and activated his iPhone.

I suppose there is a middle ground to be found here, but it does have me curious how often do you use iTunes vs a wall charger to juice up your iPhone?
Click to expand...
Uhm. On occasion I plug my iPhone in to my Mac to charge. Since I have a PowerBook G4 and an iPhone 5 I can't run iTunes 11. So, plugging my iPhone 5 in to iTunes is technically impossible (even if I had a Mac that could run iTunes 11) because iTunes is software, not hardware. But, while I cannot sync with iTunes my PowerBook G4 does just fine charging my iPhone 5 as it's hardware, that comes with a USB port that charges USB devices, and not software – like iTunes, which is incapable of charging anything, let alone my iPhone - because it's not hardware.

In the past I plugged my iPhone 5 in to my PC with the intent to sync with iTunes 11. But, having jailbroken, I haven't had to do that for several months and don't really intend to do it ever again unless I must. Which is no big deal because iCloud has my backups and I don't keep my music library on my iPhone. That's up in the cloud with Google Play, which I access using gMusic and stream to my iPhone.

So…any real charging I do is at the end of the day when I plug my iPhone into the Apple supplied charger and lightning cable that came with the phone for charging overnight - which I suspect if it made my battery function worse, Apple probably would not have included in the box with my iPhone 5 when they shipped it to me.

iTunes is pretty much not in the picture for anything any more.
 
Last edited:
What does iTunes have to do with anything? Shouldn't this read "computer USB"? I charge trough that all the time in machines that don't even have iTunes installed.
 
only when I need to restore or update I use it connected to MBP... otherwise only with the wall charger.
 
Most of the time I just plug it into the wall charger overnight. I do use iTunes still for syncing and backups since I'm only running Snow Leopard (I.e. can't fully use iCloud). In terms of updates, I usually do them from the phone's App Store or do software updates from the phone if possible. There was at least one that I had to plug it into the computer for.
 
Maybe once or twice, when I am using my phone as a hotspot to my MacBook. Else, it charges overnight by my bed.
 
Rarely ever plug it into the Macbook anymore. I have a wall charger next to my bed to charge it overnight and since I've gotten iTunes Match everything I do as far as adding new music or editing/creating playlists gets updated in real time on my iPhone as soon as I do it on iTunes on my computer.

There is no need to use iTunes to update Apps because you can use cellular data to update them or WiFi for the ones that large and require WiFi to update.
 
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