Is it time to replace your iPhone battery?

Your iPhone just isn’t what it used to be. Maybe your screen is cracked or your camera fogged up, but apart from cosmetic damage, there can also be hardware issues, mostly age-related, that affect your phone’s usefulness.

And if your iPhone is charging slowly, having trouble keeping it charged throughout the day, or shutting down unexpectedly, you may have a battery health issue. It’s a common problem as all batteries degrade over time, but is it a problem enough to consider replacing your battery?

In this story, we will show you how you can easily check whether you need to replace your iPhone battery or not and what you can do to prolong its health.

Do not miss: I replaced my iPhone’s battery myself and you can too

How to check the health of your iPhone battery

Your iPhone battery will become less effective over time, but you could also have a dead battery on a brand new iPhone. To quickly check if there is an issue with your battery health, go to settings > battery > Battery status and charging. If you’re running something on iOS 16.1, the latter shows up as fair battery condition.

Above is your battery’s maximum capacity, which should be at or near 100% if you have a relatively new iPhone.

However, what you do want to watch is peak efficiency and the sentence below. when you see Your battery is currently supporting normal peak levels PerformanceYou have no identified battery problems and you should not need a replacement.

Need to replace your iPhone battery?

If you see any of the following messages, You may need to replace your battery, or at least make an appointment with Apple or an authorized service provider to have your battery checked:

• This iPhone shut down unexpectedly because the battery couldn’t provide the peak performance it needed. Power management has been applied to prevent this from happening again/You have manually disabled power management protections.
• This iPhone cannot determine the battery health. An Apple Authorized Service Provider can service the battery. More about the service options.
• The condition of your battery is significantly reduced. An Apple Authorized Service Provider can replace the battery to restore full performance and capacity. More about the service options.

Depending on whether you have insurance (third-party or AppleCare+) or not, you might not need to spend any money at all to replace your iPhone’s battery. If your iPhone is new, you have at least one year warranty to replace a defective battery. If you don’t have insurance, Apple will charge an estimated $49 to $99 to replace your battery. You can also check the Apple Service Programs page to see if replacement or repair programs are available for your device.

Is there anything you can do to extend the life of your iPhone battery?

The faster you cycle through your daily battery life, the faster your overall battery life will degrade, so here are some tips Apple says you should follow:

• Update to the latest available software.
• Adjust the screen brightness (manually or automatically) as needed.
• Use WiFi when available.
• Activate the energy saving mode as needed.
• Disable background app refresh (total or per app).
• Turn off location services (entirely or on a per-app basis).
• Turn off Allow notifications.
• If necessary, turn on Airplane mode.
• If you use your computer to charge your phone, make sure your computer is connected.

If you need more battery saving tips for your iPhone, read on 8 ways to improve iPhone battery life, 2 iOS 16 features to disable to save battery and What happens if you keep your iPhone on sleep mode all the time?.