4 iPhone Charging Mistakes Apple Employees Warn Are Ruining Your Battery Health: Using Cheap Chargers & More

Prolonging the life of your iPhone battery is a way to save money and keep your phone in good working condition until you’re ready to upgrade to a new device. All it really takes to make this a reality is good charging habits and avoiding a few common mistakes and even settings that aren’t doing you any favors when it comes to your battery power.

These four iPhone charging mistakes can ruin your battery health.

Keeping Background App Refresh Enabled

This isn’t a specific charging tip, but rather a warning: as convenient as Background App Refresh is, it is a battery hog that takes up resources on your phone. Disabling this setting is helpful to keep your battery from dying sooner, which means fewer charging sessions and less of a risk of overcharging your device.

Not Enabling Optimized Battery Charging

Before you charge your phone again, enable Optimized Battery Charging so that your device automatically reduces the amount of time it spends fully charging, which prevent your battery from depleting as quickly. With this featured set to on, your iPhone will delay charging past 80 percent most of the time. Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging > toggle on Optimized Battery Charging.

Overcharging Your Phone

There’s no need to overcharge your phone. If it’s already at 95 percent and you continue charging it for hours, it can deplete the power. One way to keep this from happening is by enabling Optimized Battery Charging.

Using Cheap Chargers

Cheap chargers that aren’t certified by Apple can provide the wrong charging speed for your device. If the speed is too fast, for example, this can tax your battery, cause your device to heat up, and create conditions that can lead to battery degradation over time.