iPhone 12 promax battery health at 87% after one year?

Hello,

I got my iPhone on December 21 2020, and on December 22 2021, it went down to 87% battery health. Is this normal? I often will see a drop in health percentage by one or 2% a month.

In may, I accidentally folded my covers on top of my iPhone while it was charging one night and woke up to a temperature warning that stated my iPhone needed to cool down before I could use it. I quickly made sure that it was cooled down, and did a diagnostic with Apple. They said that there were two temperature warnings two hours apart, but that no damage was done to the battery, and the battery health was still at 100%. However, I’ve read that there could be permanent damage to the battery capacity if the iPhone is overheated. Could I have done damage to my battery?

I noticed in June, it was at 98% health, and it just declined from there.

In July, it went from 98% to 97% to 96%, and in August, it went from 96% to 95% to 94%. In September, it went from 94% to 93% to 92%, and in October it went from 92% to 91% to 90%. in November it went from 90% to 89% to 88% health. I managed to make that percentage last until December 22 2021 when it dropped to 87% health by putting airplane mode on, DND on, turning off bluetooth, data, and Wi-Fi. I haven’t really used my phone, and haven’t needed to charge it every night like I had been doing before. I was told that if it is at 50% battery before I go to bed, than I shouldn’t plug it in to the charger as that will make the charge cycles happen faster and lower battery health faster. I charge it about every four-five days when it gets below 40-30% battery.

The only bad thing as that it seems that optimize battery charging no longer activate and displays notification on the lock screen when I do plug my phone in the charger.

I need to make this battery last as I do not have applecare or the money to get the battery replaced. It looks like my payments end in January of 2024, and that will be when I can upgrade my phone.

If it is at 87% health now, I would like to know about how much longer I have until it drops below 80%, and if I can still use my battery if it does drop below 80% before I can upgrade it?

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Dec 25, 2021 8:11 PM

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31 replies

Feb 5, 2022 8:54 PM in response to betterpath2016

Absolutely the worse thing you can do. It should be unplugged at 100% charge.

Dec 25, 2021 9:57 PM in response to y_p_w

I found a few on Amazon that are charging cases.

do they have ones where I can use the external battery all the time? I’m trying to make the health not go down as much. What about keeping it on the charger for a long time? Apple told me that I should always take it off the charger once it reaches 100% as keeping it on the charger after that damages the battery.

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Dec 26, 2021 11:27 AM in response to betterpath2016

betterpath2016 wrote:

Will having it on the charger for days on end make my battery capacity drop?

No. I’ve done that with many devices and it’s never resulted in premature reduction in battery health.

Feb 6, 2022 9:10 AM in response to y_p_w

I suppose that is possible with anything which uses power. Using the logic things shouldn't be plugged in at night when we sleep, perhaps we should unplug our appliances, and anything else which can draw current from outlets at night.

caedmon65

Level 4

2,506 points

Feb 6, 2022 2:16 PM in response to lobsterghost1

Apple devices actually have a feature that allows them to be plugged in all night. They learn from your usage of the device and will wait to charge past 80% until a time you would usually use your device. It is not the best to leave them plugged in all night, but I do and I haven’t had problems in the past.

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Feb 9, 2022 8:45 AM in response to betterpath2016

betterpath2016 wrote:

My iPhone is now at 85% battery capacity.

Certainly worse than typical, but there's not really much you can do about it other than replace the battery at your own cost. It's out of warranty by now, and even under AppleCare the requirement would be that it's under 80% battery health with less than 500 cycles.

Feb 9, 2022 9:14 AM in response to y_p_w

It has 182 charge cycles. When Apple does a diagnostic test on my battery, they say it’s not damaged. Are you supposed to let die once a week or so? I haven’t let my phone drop past 20% battery power. My friend got the same phone as I did a week later, and her battery health is at 88%. She says it’s because she lets it die every week.

Feb 9, 2022 10:32 AM in response to y_p_w

Thank you very much for replying.

I wondering if when I had the alert message your iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it, damaged my battery at some point back in May 2021.

I have recently started to use my phone a bit more, as I figured having it basically unusable duty returning on airplane mode, disabling Wi-Fi, turning on do not disturb, and other various means was just wasting my phone. I still have those features turned on, but I’m using it on the charger a little bit more. Optimize battery charging is enabled, however I am unable to get it down to 20% around the same time every time to charge it for a routine.

when I would use it every day before November 2021, I noticed it was a go down by 2% a month. Now that I don’t really use it as much, I get three weeks in between the battery capacity dropping a percentage.

Feb 9, 2022 11:14 AM in response to y_p_w

It's documented well enough in the world of Lion battery maintenance, whether Apple specifically mentions it or not. They do mention it in storing your iPhone for a period of time, and say in that article not to let the battery fully discharge.

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Feb 9, 2022 11:42 AM in response to lobsterghost1

lobsterghost1 wrote:

It's documented well enough in the world of Lion battery maintenance, whether Apple specifically mentions it or not. They do mention it in storing your iPhone for a period of time, and say in that article not to let the battery fully discharge.

Sure. But deep discharge is well below auto-shutdown at 0%. If it's gotten to that point it will still be minimally powered in order to display the battery icon when someone tries to power it on. The only recommendation that Apple has is to not store a device at that state, which I imply as meaning be sure to charge it. This is really in their recommendation to store at about 50%, but they do give the reason why they don't recommend storing at 0%.

Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple

If you store a device when its battery is fully discharged, the battery could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding a charge.

Feb 9, 2022 11:49 AM in response to y_p_w

I have no need to debate this. You've given good advice in this thread. I will continue to advise people that fully discharging a Lion battery is not only unnecessary but generally not a good thing to do.

Dec 25, 2021 8:52 PM in response to caedmon65

I got my charge cycle count checked, and it’s currently at 173. Is that normal?

Dec 25, 2021 9:15 PM in response to betterpath2016

I also heard that once it reaches 70-50% health, the battery will swell up and not work anymore.

I don’t know what an usb battery pack is. What is that?

Dec 26, 2021 10:21 AM in response to y_p_w

Will having it on the charger for days on end make my battery capacity drop?

Feb 6, 2022 7:52 AM in response to y_p_w

Is that why my iPhone 12 battery blew up? Was told by apple support not to leave charging overnight

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iPhone 12 promax battery health at 87% after one year?