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Share your battery power cycle/calibration methodes

M

metsjetsfan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 2, 2011
1,410
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post your methods here when you do your once a month or two calibration . There is always talk about how it should be done some ? To consider:

Do you charge to 100% then Drain all the way down or drain from any %
Do you use the phone until it auto shuts? Or 1%
Do you use the 5,10 or 12 watt charger
Do you charge with the phone off or on(parasitic drain)
Do you leave the phone plugged in 2 hours past 100% or 20 minutes or overnight
Favorite app to use to drain the battery? Just stream a video?

Interesting that apples site no longer says to do this. I saw the uk site still had it but couldnt find in the US one. Think it just confused people
 
Last edited:
metsjetsfan said:
post your methods here. There is always talk about how it should be done some ? To consider:

Do you charge to 100% then Drain all the way down or drain from any %
Do you use the phone until it auto shuts? Or 1%
Do you use the 5,10 or 12 watt charger
Do you charge with the phone off or on(parasitic drain)
Do you leave the phone plugged in 2 hours past 100% or 20 minutes or overnight
Favorite app to use to drain the battery? Just stream a video?
Click to expand...

I rarely leave the phone plugged in past 100%. I probably do a complete drain and full charge twice a month. My batteries always have and continue to be optimal. I haven't found that the type of charger makes any difference - I use them all. I try my best to charge the phone and let it charge - that is to say, I don't charge it to boost it and extra 10% or 20% but sometimes it happens and you need to.
 
I just tend to use my device throughout the day and charge when I go to sleep at night and take it off charge when I wake up in the morning. I have a 6+ which has crazy battery life so I don't have to worry about charging in the middle of the day or anything.
 
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BenTrovato said:
I rarely leave the phone plugged in past 100%. I probably do a complete drain and full charge twice a month. My batteries always have and continue to be optimal. I haven't found that the type of charger makes any difference - I use them all. I try my best to charge the phone and let it charge - that is to say, I don't charge it to boost it and extra 10% or 20% but sometimes it happens and you need to.
Click to expand...
Apologies thats what i meant the drain and full charge how do you do that
 
metsjetsfan said:
Apologies thats what i meant the drain and full charge how do you do that
Click to expand...

I do it whenever it's convenient. Either by using it until it dies or playing a youtube video on full brightness. For the charge I'll use any wall charger or the USB cable connected to my laptop.
 
BenTrovato said:
I do it whenever it's convenient. Either by using it until it dies or playing a youtube video on full brightness. For the charge I'll use any wall charger or the USB cable connected to my laptop.
Click to expand...
Thanks yeah laptop really drains if not plugged in
 
I always run my phone down to under 20% and charge my old iPhone 6+ now has over 150 cycles still showing 2800mah.
 
I never let the battery run down. And I leave it plugged in most of the day (at work) and at night (on the nightstand). Never had any problems on any of my iPhone batteries. My 2012 13" rMBP has only about 45 cycles on its battery and it still powers throug a good 7 hours occasionally when I pull it out on battery.
 
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Forgive me if I'm wrong, but with these newer batteries, is any of this really necessary any more? I'm really asking because I just use my phone and plug it in ever night. I had an iPhone 5 before this and it lasted for many years with no real battery loss over time?
 
Aceroller said:
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but with these newer batteries, is any of this really necessary any more? I'm really asking because I just use my phone and plug it in ever night. I had an iPhone 5 before this and it lasted for many years with no real battery loss over time?
Click to expand...

No it's not necessary and hasn't been necessary for a while now. All this crap about battery conditioning came about with the use of nickel-cadmium batteries, which did need it, but not for lithium-ion which has been in use for many years now in phones. Hard battery drains are actually BAD for lithium -ion.
 
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the battery doesnt need calibration, the battery meter display does. once a month or every 2 months, run it down to zero then charge it back to 100
 
Whatever. If it reads 58% instead of 59%....what am I missing there? Oh....you forgot to calibrate the display. False. No I didn't.
 
metsjetsfan said:
post your methods here when you do your once a month or two calibration . There is always talk about how it should be done some ? To consider:

Do you charge to 100% then Drain all the way down or drain from any %
Do you use the phone until it auto shuts? Or 1%
Do you use the 5,10 or 12 watt charger
Do you charge with the phone off or on(parasitic drain)
Do you leave the phone plugged in 2 hours past 100% or 20 minutes or overnight
Favorite app to use to drain the battery? Just stream a video?

Interesting that apples site no longer says to do this. I saw the uk site still had it but couldnt find in the US one. Think it just confused people
Click to expand...

I simply plug my phone in when I go to bed and unplug it when I get up in the morning. I have owned every iPhone and never had a single battery problem, ever.

There is no need to do anything special unless you are having problems. Just use you iPhone and enjoy the technology that Apple put in it so you do not have to worry about stuff like this!
 
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I used to charge overnight and then maybe have to charge a little at work, but lately I've been charging fully at work and leaving it off the charger overnight.

This is a 6s Plus. I've been getting about 10.5 hours of screen time this way. Way better than the 5.5-6 I was getting on my old 6.
 
As we were discussing in another thread - I think the most of us charge at night and use all day. And most of us with the newer phones don't have to worry about it getting under 20% in a full day's use unless you're doing a lot of video watching or heavy gaming. And as long as there's no jailbreak. After a jailbreak I'm an animation nut - so lots of things are running on my SpringBoard and LockScreen - and on my 6 I had to charge midday.

Apple's recommendation for years has been to, at least monthly let the battery discharge down to under 5% and then do a full charge back up to 100% - to properly calibrate (NOT "condition" -which is no longer needed after the invention of Lithium Ion Batteries) the battery. This year it seems they've dropped that recommendation off their battery maintenance page - but I've read that they dropped it because of confusion in the masses - rather than because they don't believe battery meter calibration is normative or helpful.

In my 7 years of owning iPhones and many Apple laptops I also have found it important to do this 'battery meter calibration' as soon as you unbox your phone - or right after you run down the charge they put on it at the factory. Any battery results you post the first day - will be skewed until you do the calibration.

Now - I'm not saying that your battery WILL have PROBLEMS if you don't do this. I'm saying - that all LiON batteries get skewed in their calibration. The most notable symptoms of this are the battery only charging to 99%. Or you're only at 15% and your phone turns off. Or your phone runs down to 1% and then stays at 1% for 5 hours. These are all symptoms of a battery meter that's gotten out of calibration. If you never experience those symptoms - then you can blissfully ignore the calibration stuff we're talking about here. But I use my phone VERY hard EVERY day of the year I have it. And I see battery calibration errors a lot. And they're always fixed by depleting the battery to under 5% and then a full recharge without using. And let the trickle charge (any time on charger above 100% on the read out) go for 2 hours beyond 100%.

YMMV.. (Your Mileage May Vary) - but it's still Apple's 'opinion' that calibration should be a monthly endeavor. This is also the view of most Lithium iOn Battery manufacturers.
 
I go from 100% to 0% and dies the first 3-4 days. This is usually easier as it's new and I use it more. If I need to run it down more, I'll record video at the highest bitrate, brightness at max and the torch on. Then I just use it normally until I get my next iPhone. It's more typical on a weekend or something that I'll have my phone drain down to 0%, or close to it—usually about once per month. I usually don't have battery issues, but then again I usually buy a new iPhone every year. The longest I had was the iPhone 5 for two years, but I had it replaced a few times for lock button issues so never noticed poor battery life. My wife's iPhone 5 battery started getting pretty crappy after 2.5 years, but then her lock button broke so Apple gave her a new iPhone 5 so her battery is good to go again. I don't know what her battery habbits are.
 
Never intentionally do full discharge with modern lithium ion batteries. That recommendation is for older battery tech and it's only going to hurt your battery lifespan on modern devices. They do not benefit from any "calibration" routine.
 
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