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Charging my iPhone for the first time

I'm waiting for my phone, and when I turn it on, it will have a certain percentage of battery charge, for example 68%. for the very first charging of the phone, I need to completely discharge the phone to zero, and then charge it to 100%. or is such an operation not necessary for new phones, and I can just charge when it's convenient for me? for example, I will discharge the phone to 30% and then put it to charge


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 13 Pro Max

Posted on Nov 9, 2021 1:24 PM

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Posted on Nov 10, 2021 1:57 PM

I think I'm starting to understand how it works. after a few videos about batteries. I understand that there is nothing wrong with the phone charging 100% after a night with optimized battery charging, because sooner or later I will lose the charging cycle anyway? And this does not mean that I overcharged the phone, do I understand correctly? or how to understand that I have overcharged the phone? and the last question: is it better to charge the phone overnight when is below 50%? and can i use the phone while it charging? I'm asking so many questions because I've never used an iPhone and I don't want to ruin it as soon as possible

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 10, 2021 1:57 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I think I'm starting to understand how it works. after a few videos about batteries. I understand that there is nothing wrong with the phone charging 100% after a night with optimized battery charging, because sooner or later I will lose the charging cycle anyway? And this does not mean that I overcharged the phone, do I understand correctly? or how to understand that I have overcharged the phone? and the last question: is it better to charge the phone overnight when is below 50%? and can i use the phone while it charging? I'm asking so many questions because I've never used an iPhone and I don't want to ruin it as soon as possible

Nov 9, 2021 1:27 PM in response to Serious_Unicorn

It is not necessary, and is actually a bad idea for a Lithium Ion battery. Just charge when convenient, but the best practice is to charge overnight, every night, with Optimized Charging enabled. Also enable automatic backup and the phone will back up overnight, every night. Just go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud and turn on iCloud Backup.


Here’s the long answer→When to charge your iPhone or iPad | Communities

Nov 9, 2021 1:29 PM in response to Serious_Unicorn

Try NOT to discharge it so low that the device automatically shuts down to preserve minimal charge state (a truly 100% discharged lithium cell will never recover and take a charge again). Deep cycle discharges will hasten the normal battery aging/decay processes.


Charge whenever convenient and don’t worry about partial charges either. Just try to avoid those really deep discharges into single digit percentage remaining.

Nov 9, 2021 2:31 PM in response to Serious_Unicorn

Charging overnight reduces the number of charging cycles long term, because the energy the phone uses at night comes from the external source rather than the battery.


Batteries are consumables; they lose a little capacity every time they are discharged, then recharged. On average this works out to about a 1% loss for every 25 “full charge cycles” ( some will be a little more, others a little less). As one example, if you charge the phone overnight, every night (and that is what you should do; it is a best practice), it starts the day at 100%. If it drops to 20% by the end of the day before you charge it again overnight that counts as 0.8 full charge cycles (20% to 100%), or about 24 full charge cycles per month of use. For this example your battery capacity will lose about 1% per month. Of course, if the end-of-day level is higher than 20% the capacity loss will be a little less, and if it is lower than 20%, or you charge it during the day, the capacity loss will be higher.


The absolute best way to slow the decline of battery capacity long term is to enable Optimized Battery Charging (Settings/Battery/Battery Health) and charge the device overnight, every night. The battery will fast charge to 80%, then pause. During the nighttime pause the phone will use mains power instead of battery power, allowing the battery to “rest”, and thus reducing the need to charge the battery quite as often. The phone will resume charging to reach 100% when you are ready to use your phone; it will “learn” your usage pattern. If you enable iCloud Backup (Settings/[your name]/iCloud - iCloud Backup) the phone will back up overnight also, assuring that you can never lose more than the current day’s updates.

Nov 10, 2021 4:31 PM in response to Serious_Unicorn

Since it is actually an international engineering standard, no SMART technology LiOH battery can be over charged. That goes for electric tooth brushes, an iPad pencil, a hybrid car, an LiOH powered hedge trimmer or any other name brand LiOH battery powered device using quality name brand built LiOH battery. The device and its battery regulate their own charging and they simply stop charging when the battery is at capacity. That has been an industry standard for LiOH powered batteries for decades now.


You will also find you cannot fully deplete the battery as the phone will automatically power off when the battery reaches a very low charge level. As Lawrence mentions, this is to ensure it does not fully discharge and ruin itself. But you should charge it a.s.a.p. if it does auto-shut down to ensure it does not further deplete charge.


But it is best to not often or frequently push the charge so low the phone shuts down by itself. Those deep cycles are not good.


Other than that, ignore the charge level when you plug it in. If you’re somewhere where it is convenient to plug it in, just go ahead and do so. And don’t worry about the charge state when you do later need to unplug it and go. Partial discharges or charges don’t matter.


A charge cycle is the battery going to full depletion (the point it’s own firmware shuts off the device) and then being charged back to 100% of current capacity. But a cycle is a cycle, whether all that happens in one sequence, or incrementally over multiple partial discharges and charges. So the cycles will count up, no matter how you use it. They are an inevitable consequence of using any chemical battery.

Nov 10, 2021 2:44 PM in response to Serious_Unicorn

The “charger” is built into the phone (technically, it is a “U2 Tristar” microcircuit if you want to look it up). It stops charging at 100%, so you can’t overcharge. Once the phone reaches 100% power for the phone’s processes that run overnight (or other times) use external power until you unplug it, so there’s a real advantage to leaving it plugged in.


About the only thing you should not do is let the battery go all the way to zero; doing that repeatedly will shorten the life of the battery. Thus, it’s good practice to charge it when it reaches 20% just to prevent it going to zero if there is an unexpected power demand. And even if it goes to zero accidentally that would not cause an immediate problem because “zero” is not fully discharged; the phone leaves some reserve precisely to prevent the battery going totally flat (which will kill it). So if it reaches zero charge it “soon” (within a few hours).

Charging my iPhone for the first time

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