iPhone 11 Pro Optimize charging : I’m giving up.

[MisterMillz]

I could be wrong, but my understanding of “...learns from your daily charging routine so it can wait to charge past 80%...” suggests that it WOULD charge your phone past 80% for all the people that charge over night. It knows you’re asleep and therefore have enough time to endure the slow charging that occurs once the battery reaches 80. Battery health is an educated guess at best, but for what it’s worth I’ve always charged my phone overnight to 100 and wear it down to 20-30. Battery health was 99% when I sold it (a year later).

 

[wardie]

I could be wrong, but my understanding of “...learns from your daily charging routine so it can wait to charge past 80%...” suggests that it WOULD charge your phone past 80% for all the people that charge over night. It knows you’re asleep and therefore have enough time to endure the slow charging that occurs once the battery reaches 80. Battery health is an educated guess at best, but for what it’s worth I’ve always charged my phone overnight to 100 and wear it down to 20-30. Battery health was 99% when I sold it (a year later).

Yes (when it works) it does charge past 80% but only after pausing for a while until it expects it will have it fully charged before you normally start to use it next day/period. That way the battery spends less time at its 100% most stressed level. Hence allegedly helps battery life.

 

[Seth Matthews]

It doesn’t work. It is broken.

Works just fine for me.

 

[cableguy84]

When I updated it worked for a couple weeks then stopped

 

[IowaLynn]

Joining the club. No issue until this last week. Probably right after 13.3.1 update. A) phone was getting warm, much warmer than before B) stopped at 79-80% which it had not done before.

Began to think it wasn’t positioned properly on charging pad. That a recent up installed or app update was part of why. And of course this “feature “ is only for my iPhone 11 and not my older X model.

 

[noobinator]

I put my phone on a wireless charger the exact same time M-F and get up at the exact same time so you think it would be able to get this down? The thing doesn't work.

 

[MandiMac]

I could be wrong, but my understanding of “...learns from your daily charging routine so it can wait to charge past 80%...” suggests that it WOULD charge your phone past 80% for all the people that charge over night.

Exactly this. It has to do with the charging routine. When I used my iPhone with CarPlay and charged it throughout the day, the algorithm went crazy and optimised charging didn't work. Now I went back to charging it once per day (overnight, that is), and after one week of doing so, optimised charging does exactly that. How are your experiences?

 

[macintoshmac]

Exactly this. It has to do with the charging routine. When I used my iPhone with CarPlay and charged it throughout the day, the algorithm went crazy and optimised charging didn't work. Now I went back to charging it once per day (overnight, that is), and after one week of doing so, optimised charging does exactly that. How are your experiences?

It took about a week for the algorithm to learn from your habits? Okay, I can try with mine. Also, I see you say you charge it once per day, I want to know a slight detail - do you then not plug it in for any amount of time through the day other than once to charge it overnight?

What happens if say a couple of times you used the device more than you usually do and had to plug it in to charge a little in the middle of the day? Does the algorithm then stay in place or does it go haywire again?

 

[MandiMac]

It took about a week for the algorithm to learn from your habits? Okay, I can try with mine. Also, I see you say you charge it once per day, I want to know a slight detail - do you then not plug it in for any amount of time through the day other than once to charge it overnight? What happens if say a couple of times you used the device more than you usually do and had to plug it in to charge a little in the middle of the day? Does the algorithm then stay in place or does it go haywire again?

Yes, somewhat between 7 and 10 days. It worked for me when the feature was released, then I changed my charging rhythm (using it as navigation tool in the car, charging up to 9 times per day with it). Then it went haywire, now I'm back to optimised charging again.

So yes, currently I'm not plugging the iPhone in for any amount of time through the day. As I'm rocking an 8+, I never really had to charge in the middle of the day so far. An educated guess would be that a one-time charge won't throw the algorithm off, but when your charging rhythm is all over the place like mine (sometimes 3 times in one hour because of using CarPlay), it's bound to go haywire.

 

[Ifti]

Ive never bothered to take note of this before as I generally charge my phone at work on my desk at random times. However, recently I have been charging at home overnight.

I place my handset on charge at around 11pm. I don't even know how it 'learnt' what time I would be up by (I usually get up around 7am - maybe it went by my alarm time?) but notice that the battery charges to 80% and then charges the remaining so that the handset is ready for 6:30am.

The other night I work up and checked the time on my phone, and noticed a notification informing me that the handset will be fully charged at 6:30am - kinda cool how it actually informs you of this as well!

So at 7am when I wake up my handset is fully charged as normal. As I said, I don't know when it 'learnt' this but all seems to be working fine this end....

 

[nicho]

Yes, somewhat between 7 and 10 days. It worked for me when the feature was released, then I changed my charging rhythm (using it as navigation tool in the car, charging up to 9 times per day with it). Then it went haywire, now I'm back to optimised charging again.

So yes, currently I'm not plugging the iPhone in for any amount of time through the day. As I'm rocking an 8+, I never really had to charge in the middle of the day so far. An educated guess would be that a one-time charge won't throw the algorithm off, but when your charging rhythm is all over the place like mine (sometimes 3 times in one hour because of using CarPlay), it's bound to go haywire.

It’s a shame that it’s such a “smart” tool. For some it’d make much more sense to have some semblance of manual control.

 

[compwiz1202]

Exactly this. It has to do with the charging routine. When I used my iPhone with CarPlay and charged it throughout the day, the algorithm went crazy and optimised charging didn't work. Now I went back to charging it once per day (overnight, that is), and after one week of doing so, optimised charging does exactly that. How are your experiences?

Interesting. Never works for me either and I sometimes charge in the middle. But that seems flawed. All that should matter is that your wakeup time is consistent, so it can charge to 80 overnight until however long before your wakeup alarm to get you to 100.

 

[macintoshmac]

Yes, somewhat between 7 and 10 days. It worked for me when the feature was released, then I changed my charging rhythm (using it as navigation tool in the car, charging up to 9 times per day with it). Then it went haywire, now I'm back to optimised charging again.

So yes, currently I'm not plugging the iPhone in for any amount of time through the day. As I'm rocking an 8+, I never really had to charge in the middle of the day so far. An educated guess would be that a one-time charge won't throw the algorithm off, but when your charging rhythm is all over the place like mine (sometimes 3 times in one hour because of using CarPlay), it's bound to go haywire.

Thank you for that elaborate, patient response. I am on an 8, I can do without charging it through the day with my current usage. However, at this point it might be better if Apple rather implemented a simple popup asking if we want to enable optimised charging each time the phone is plugged in, and if there is no response for 5-10 seconds, goes ahead with charging the phone normally as it were.

 

[MandiMac]

It’s a shame that it’s such a “smart” tool. For some it’d make much more sense to have some semblance of manual control.

But then it wouldn't "just work" like Apple wants their devices to do. I think of it as a "set it and forget it" setting, and eventually it works like it's supposed to for 90 % of the users. Guess this is what they wanted

 

[nicho]

But then it wouldn't "just work" like Apple wants their devices to do. I think of it as a "set it and forget it" setting, and eventually it works like it's supposed to for 90 % of the users. Guess this is what they wanted

If below the toggle, I could set it to not go beyond 80% between the hours of 11pm and 5am... I think that would be pretty set and forget for me. And it'd actually do the job it's supposed to, since any daytime charging at all seemingly messes it up.

 

[MandiMac]

If below the toggle, I could set it to not go beyond 80% between the hours of 11pm and 5am... I think that would be pretty set and forget for me. And it'd actually do the job it's supposed to, since any daytime charging at all seemingly messes it up.

Sure, I get what you're saying. Then again, pre iOS 13 we didn't have such a setting at all, always charging the phone "over" 100 % overnight. So if this feature works now 75 % of the time, I take it over not having it at all

 

[lJoSquaredl]

Curious, if you leave it plugged in all night but you're using it constantly (listening to music or something) is it better? I don't think it's always at 100% I think it jumps around between 95-100% constantly as it uses it.

 

[Superrenz]

I put my phone on a wireless charger the exact same time M-F and get up at the exact same time so you think it would be able to get this down? The thing doesn't work.

Exactly the same over here. I surrender!

 

[MandiMac]

Curious, if you leave it plugged in all night but you're using it constantly (listening to music or something) is it better? I don't think it's always at 100% I think it jumps around between 95-100% constantly as it uses it.

It's the same regarding to the battery cycles, because it's the same if you charge a phone from 60 to 100 % or 20 times from 98 to 100 %. But the constant temperature (I assume your phone gets hotter if you use it while charging) could do something to the innards theoretically, I wouldn't worry about that at all.

Just for kicks, a screenshot from today's morning:

 

[icloudUser]

saw the message / notification of optimized charging a couple of times in the last two weeks.

So may be it started to work. The only change in my set up is a faster charger. Wonder if thats also part of the equation to trigger the optimized charging feature

 

[jbachandouris]

Since I am on IUP, I haven't even looked into 'optimized' charging. I use wired CarPlay, so my phone is charging when I drive. I place it on my wireless charging dock at night and when it's at 100%, I power it off.

I'm as anal as the next person, but I don't see how all this obsession is really necessary. I have never had a battery issue and I've owned almost every iPhone since the 3GS.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Still no optimized charging behavior three months in. My charging schedule is as consistent as it can get and it still goes straight to 100% as soon as it's plugged in.

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that my phone never drops below 60%...

 

[fatlardo]

My charging is starting to get better. It first started to charge at around 9pm. It would go full by 12 am. It has been updated to 1am. Hopefully it’ll improve. It’s been just a little over a month.

 

[EnderBeta]

This is your field? I’ve worked in IT for the government, I have a strong level of knowledge in regards to how batteries age and react because I was constantly working with and replacing them. The batteries that actually needed replacing were ones which were simply permantly plugged in 99% of the time for months on end and exposed to extreme heat because the cooling was insufficient.

Also iPad? I said iPod mini which has a far smaller battery then any iPhone and it works fine, near to what it did when it was new. It’s not exactly like it was when it was new but we are talking a decade and a half here, it still plays music for several hours on end.

How much do you think these silly ridiculous techniques will save you in regards to battery life? Spoiler: Nothing noticeable unless you keep doing this for a decade.

You say this is your field yet you are obviously sourcing your information from any trashy clickbait news source. The statement of that it is chemically impossibly for a battery to perform in such a manner is proof of that.

Just enjoy your iPhone and stop worrying

Agreed. I have a 3GS that I have been using as an iPod for years that still carries a charge. It’s far from chemically impossible. 😂

 

[Cristim74]

It does work. You just have to let it learn your charging habits.