How to Check the Battery Health on All Your Apple Devices

 

If you’re like me, you relentlessly charge your devices even if doing so might be hurting the battery over the long-term. “This is the way,” I think to myself as I look over at the AirPods Pro charging case that I’ve left plugged in for the last three weeks.

One of the best forms of preventative maintenance you can easily carry out for any Apple device is to periodically check their battery health. I don’t mean the number in the upper-right corner of your screen that shows you how much juice you have left as a percentage. I mean the slightly more-buried setting that gives you a clue about how your battery is faring overall.

While there’s not much you can do if your battery is awful, save for getting a new one, at least you’ll have a clue that your device is approaching “ancient” status or that your charging habits might be preventing you from sucking as much life out of your device as you can. With luck, you’ll notice a dying battery while your device is still under warranty, so your battery replacement will be free, instead of $$$.

Here’s how to check the battery health on every kind of Apple device:

• iPhone
• iPad
• Mac
• Apple Watch

How to check your iPhone’s battery health

To see how well your iPhone’s battery is doing, pull up the Settings app and tap on Battery. Wait a moment, and you’ll get a number of graphs that show you your battery level (and activity) over the past 24 hours or the past 10 days.

Screenshot: David Murphy

These are all well and good, but what you really want to do is tap on Battery Health, which might give you the grim news:

Screenshot: David Murphy

Don’t freak out if you get that message at the top, though. Again, these are just data points. If your iPhone still usually gets you through the day without a problem—and you don’t experience significant performance penalties as a result of your meh battery—then don’t sweat it. You might want to consider upgrading to a new phone at some point (or a pricey battery replacement), but it’s not essential unless you’re really experiencing noticeable issues while using your phone or tablet every day.