Can't add a battery widget to the lock screen that shows the phone's battery? I can add my other devices but not see the actual battery life of the phone? Or am I missing something? I have a 12 mini and it would be very useful to be able to see the numerical battery % on my lock screen.
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iOS 16 and phone battery widget
- Thread starter ajm222
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They might have another accessory linked to their phone, so it's percentage will show instead of the phone's.
Example, I have an Apple Watch & Studio buds, those will show instead of the phone's battery percentage.
It's easier to go into the settings - battery - and turn on Battery Percentage so it shows in the battery on the upper right.
You can have the widget display a certain device (i.e. your phone) instead of being automatic.
When customizing the Lock Screen and widgets, tap the battery widget, turn off Automatic, and select the device.
When customizing the Lock Screen and widgets, tap the battery widget, turn off Automatic, and select the device.
Yeah, I have an Apple Watch, so that’s the only thing I see as an option. And for some reason I don’t see that ‘automatic’ toggle. And because I have a mini, I’m guessing that’s why I can’t go into settings and battery and turn on percentage.
That's because it isn't intuitive at first.
While you are in the edit screen, tap on the battery widget already in place. It will bring up "Add Widgets". THEN tap the battery widget you already have in place. That should bring up the status window for you. Turn off automatic and it will show the available option as your iPhone / device.
Unless I'm missing something, they've made it harder to see what your battery % is while charging, which comes in pretty handy... while charging. You either have to turn on the battery % in the status bar (which isn't possible on a Mini), or add a widget - a widget which still isn't as easy to see, doesn't always default to your device without changing a setting, and messes up the depth affect. I don't really care that much about the depth affect, but it seems silly to have one essential piece of info negate another "feature".
I don't normally complain about this stuff, and I'm sure it will be smoothed out in the coming months. Bus this whole lockscreen/widget/wallpaper overhaul is the first time in a really long time I've thought, "How did this get through testing?" And I've been using Android devices as secondary devices for years, so I'm familiar with the concept and not incapable of adapting to changes.
I don't normally complain about this stuff, and I'm sure it will be smoothed out in the coming months. Bus this whole lockscreen/widget/wallpaper overhaul is the first time in a really long time I've thought, "How did this get through testing?" And I've been using Android devices as secondary devices for years, so I'm familiar with the concept and not incapable of adapting to changes.
I maybe missing something as well, because I haven't noticed any difficulty in seeing the battery % while charging. It maybe easier as I mentioned earlier to just turn on the percentage meter in the battery indicator up top. It "clearly" shows the percentage in the green of the indicator while charging. Unless for some reason they removed that feature from the minis.
If it's another complaint about the widgets presentation, that I don't think can be easily addressed for now.
thanks! it worked! and man, I NEVER would have figured that out without a detailed explanation. maybe for anyone not on a mini device this isn't something that would be useful enough to bother making it really intuitive. but still.
I also don't like how making any changes at all seem to force you to then go into customizing the wallpaper as well before you can save any changes. clunky.
Loving the wallpaper. Any chance of sharing it. Or pointing me in the right direction to get it. Thanks in advance.
The way it was before, when you were charging, if the screen lit up you would see the charging % just below the time in a smaller-but-readable font. It comes in super handy when you're charging on the go and want to see how it's progressing.
That indicator is now gone. So the only way to see your charging status is to either:
1) Permanently enable the % number in the status bar, which is smaller and harder to read when you're in passing or it's sitting on your desk for example. Also, what if we don't want that number in the status bar permanently?
2) Add one of the battery widgets to the lock screen, which also stays permanently and partially blocks your lockscreen photo while not charging, disables the depth effect (if you care about that), and is also not as easy to read in passing as the old indicator.
I thought I had read that the Mini's don't have the option to have the % in the indicator, hence that comment. But maybe I'm wrong about that.
I have an SE 2022, for the record. I also have no flashlight or camera "buttons" on my lockscreen since the change, which doesn't seem to be a consistent problem with everybody. So maybe some of this is SE specific.
What I am taking from this, isn't the fact that you can't see the battery percentage at all. It's just not the way it was before & the way you preferred. But the fact is, it IS possible to somehow see the % while charging.
I can get the dislike. For example,I don't understand the whole hiding of the one dynamic wallpaper in an unlabeled section of the wallpapers. That's Apple. Not every change makes sense to us, but it's the customer forced to adapt for the sake of change.
Apple likes change. Even if that change isn't necessary, because Apple seems to feel change is an important thing whether anyone else agrees. Before you got however way you saw the battery charging % last IOS, it might have been different or non existent earlier. If you're using an Apple device you roll with the changes. Some changes you like, some you don't. The important point whether or not you like the changes, is if the capability you liked is still there, even if how it is implemented has changed.
You're not wrong. And ultimately I'm not going to switch phones just because of this.
A user's interaction with his or her lockscreen is probably one of the most habitual, muscle memory types of actions you can have with the device. It's also one of the newest and most touted changes and features in iOS 16.
That said, this is the first time (that I can remember) where I feel like Apple has made some changes that, even after a learning curve, simply hinder the overall experience. The battery % is a good example, because to maintain the capability, you're forced to add clutter to either the status bar, or the lockscreen itself - which in turn disables one of their newest features, the depth effect (that latter part being the most uncharacteristic of Apple).
Ultimately though... I'll just 🤷♂️ and move on. But what are forums for if not to complain a little, confirm bugs/issues, and get ideas from others, which was ultimately why I commented at all. I was hopeful someone would chime in with some clever workaround or fix that I (and others) wasn't aware of.
There's a third option...pull down the Control Center. That will always show the battery percentage. It's a little extra work and still not as easy to see at a quick glance, but at least this way you don't have to clutter your screen with a widget and can leave the % number disabled in the status bar.
I too found it handy to be able to see the battery percentage whilst charging so a reasonably effective workaround is to create a wallpaper with the battery percentage widget, set to display the phone charge as described by BigBlur above, just for while the phone is charging.
You can then create a 'Focus' that displays the wallpaper (mine is called "Charging" 😀)
... and finally create two 'Personal Automations' in the Shortcuts app for when the phone is connected to and disconnected from the charger. The first calls 'Set Focus' to turn the "Charging" Focus on and the second to turn it off again. In both cases you don't want 'Ask before running' to be enabled.
Now my phone displays the battery widget whilst it's connected to the charger but not at any other time.
(I actually prefer this workaround to the way it worked in IOS 15 where, on my phone, the percentage charged would alternate with the day/date.)
Looks like Apple is going to address this: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/09/20/ios-16-1-beta-2-everything-new/