Your Old iPhone Battery Doesn’t Have to Be This Bad. Here’s How to Fix It
Your Old iPhone Battery Doesn’t Have to Be This Bad. Here’s How to Fix It
Publish Date: 2026-05-17 06:46:00
Source Domain: www.cnet.com
The longer you hold onto an iPhone, the more familiar a certain frustration becomes: a battery that used to last all day now struggles to make it to dinner. Lithium-ion cells degrade gradually with every charge cycle, losing capacity so slowly that most people don’t notice until the drop-off is impossible to ignore. A new phone or a battery replacement are both options, but before you spend the money, it’s worth trying a few targeted settings changes that can meaningfully extend what your aging battery still has to give.
Over time, the maximum charge a battery can hold is reduced. While this is completely normal, there are other things that can put a strain on your battery that makes this happen faster, leaving you with a shorter battery life per charge. Couple this with new software updates that may have features that are more power-hungry and you can quickly find yourself with an aging battery that struggles to keep up even under less demanding circumstances. However, there are a few things you can do to help your battery age a bit more gracefully.
If you aren’t quite sure what to do to help prolong your iPhone battery’s life span, who better to advise you than Apple? Below you’ll find a few tips directly from the company that’ll help keep you from having to replace your battery sooner rather than later.
For more, don’t miss the top settings to change in iOS 18.3 to make your iPhone more personal.
Now on to the battery tips…
Make sure Optimized Battery Charging is enabled
You can’t overcharge a battery, but you can put your battery under a bit of stress when you charge up to 100%. To help limit that strain, your iPhone has a setting that learns from your daily charging routine (say you always plug in your phone right before you go to bed and then unplug it in the morning). It then waits to finish charging past 80% until right before you need it, instead of just quickly charging the battery all the way to 100%.
This can help reduce battery aging, and…
