Optimized Battery Charging not Working on iPhone? Fix

5 Min Read

Optimized battery charging is not working on your iPhone and you don’t know what to do. No problem. In this guide, I’ll explain why optimized battery charging is not working and what to do to fix the issue.
Starting with the iOS 13, Apple introduced theOptimized Battery Charging feature to help iPhone users maximize total battery lifespan. While some people love this feature, others don’t — maybe because it sometimes doesn’t allow their iPhone to charge past 80%. That makes it quite challenging to know whether iPhone’s Optimized Battery Charging feature is working or not. However, if you’ve noticed it’s not, here are step-by-steps instructions to fixthe issue.

How does Optimized battery charging work on the iPhone?

Here’s how the feature works::

    • If you wake up at 8 a.m. every day, Optimized Battery Charging will take note of that wake-up time.
    • When you connect your iPhone to power at night, it’ll charge normally up to 80 percent

charge.

  • At this point, the feature will pause charging.
  • It will continue charging when it recognizes it can fill up your iPhone’s battery without making it sit a full charge for too long.

Apple introduced optimized battery charging because of the way lithium-ion batteries function. All smartphone batteries naturally degrade over time, but letting a lithium-ion
battery sit at 0 or 100 percent charge for a long time can place unnecessary strain on it.

Why isn’t Optimized Battery Charging working?

Optimized Battery Charging, in theory, is a great way for Apple to help reduce the number of times an iPhone user needs to replace their battery.

It may particularly come in handy for users who hold onto their iPhones for extended lengths of time. For those users, battery health is extremely important
since no on wants to replace their battery every year.

Having said that, it seams that Optimized Battery Charging isn’t actually working for a significant number of users.

According to users experiencing this problem, the feature does not stop or start charging at the correct times. Other users have reported that the feature doesn’t do anything
at all on their devices.
In this article, we’ve explained 6 different fixes for iPhone’s Optimized Battery Charging not working as expected.

Optimized battery charging not working on iPhone? How to fix

1. RE-ENABLE OPTIMIZED BATTERY CHARGING

The first thing you should do when you notice that Optimized Battery Charging isn’t working on your iPhone is to reconfirm if the feature is enabled. Optimized battery charging is enabled by default on newer iPhone models, however, it could be disabled on your device.

NOTE: only devices running iOS 13 and higher support optimized battery charging.

To check if optimized battery charging is enabled on your iPhone, simply follow these steps:

  1. Start the settings app on your iPhone and tap Battery.
  2. Tap on Battery Health.
  3. Make sure the ‘Optimized Battery Charging’ feature is enabled. You can also try disabling it and toggle it back on.

Now that you’ve enabled the feature, let’s move to the next solution to help get Optimized Battery Charging working on your iPhone.

2. TURN ON LOCATION SERVICES

To help maximize total lifespan of your iPhone battery, the Optimized Battery Charging feature uses machine learning to learn your usage habit and determine where you spend most of your time (home, work, etc.). Afterwords, the Optimized Battery Charging feature would engage only at the locations where you spend the most time, ideally speaking.

If certain location settings on your iPhone are disabled, or there’s an unexpected discrepancy in your location pattern (for example if you recently traveled, went on vacation, or relocated), there may be a shift (or pause) in the functionality of the optimized charging feature. That is, Optimized Battery Charging wouldn’t work as expected.

Furthermore, there are a number of location settings that must be enabled on your iPhone for Optimized Battery Charging to work. Simply follow the steps below.

NOTE: None of the location information or history used for this Optimized Battery Charging is sent to Apple. The data is locally stored on your iPhone toImprove battery life

Location Services

  1. Start the settings app on your iPhone and go to Privacy.
  2. Now, tap Location Services.
  3. Lastly, tap Location Services to toggle it on if It’s not yet already.

System Customization

    Start the settings app on your iPhone and tap Privacy.
  1. Tap Location Services.
  2. Scroll down and tap on System Services.
  3. Make sure System Customization is enabled. Toggle it on if it’s not yet already.

Significant Locations

  1. Start the settings app on your iPhone and tap Privacy.
  2. Tap on Location Services.
  3. Scroll down and tap on System Services.
  4. Tap Significant Locations. You’d be requested to authorize entry either by Face ID, touch ID or your iPhone password.
  5. Make sure Significant Locations is turned on.

If these settings are enabled on your iPhone, and you did not recently travel (or moved to a different locations), but Optimized Battery Charging still doesn’t work, try the next solution.

3. RESTART IPHONE

Restarting your iPhone could help in fixing minor software glitches and resolve problems preventing Optimized Battery Charging from working on your device. Simply hold down the power button to shut down your iPhone. Wait for a minute and turn it back on and check if optimized battery charging is working. If the feature is not working still, try the next solution.

4. UPDATE IOS 13

As we’ve already pointed out, Optimized Battery Charging feature only works on devices running iOS 13 and higher. If your iPhone is running older version of iOS, you should update your device to take advantage of the feature. In case you’ve already installed iOS 13 on your device but Optimized Battery Charging still doesn’t work, you should ensure that your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS 13. To check if your device is running the latest version of iOS, Start the settings app on your iPhone and head over to General > Software Update. Download and install any update, if available.

If your device is running the latest iOS version and Optimized Battery Charging doesn’t work, try the next solution.

5. USE ORIGINAL CHARGER

If Optimized Battery Charging isn’t working on your iPhone, you may want to try the following:

If you’re using wireless charging, try standard wired charging. If you’re using a third-party charger, try out first-party Apple
Charger for a while. Just check if there’s any change.

6. WAIT IT OUT

It’s worth noting that the algorithm powering the optimized battery charging feature takes a while to gather the essential information (charging and usage habits, location pattern, etc.) for it to work properly. Apple doesn’t specify how long it takes for the feature to gather this data, but it can take days, sometimes weeks.

Personally, the Optimized Battery Charging feature took about a week to work properly, however, users have reported that it took more than 2 weeks.

Therefore, if you have been using your iPhone for a week or so, and you’re sure that the Optimized Battery Charging feature is enabled, don’t worry. The feature is busy working in the background, gathering the necessary data for it to work properly. The only option is to be patient as there is no way to fast-track the data gathering process.

Optimized Battery Charging won’t work? Problem fixed!

Currently, it appears as if Optimized Battery Charging is working appropriately for the vast majority of users, however, isn’t working at all for just as many.

Why? It appears as if the feature actually requires a consistent schedule to work. For instance, if you wake up each day at 8 a.m., then Optimized
Battery Charging is smart enough to know to resume charging an appropriate amount of time before you wake up.
We hope this article has helped you fix optimized battery charging issue on your iPhone. Now share this article with others to teach them what to do when optimized battery charging is not working on their iPhone. We also have plenty of other articles that I suggest you check right now.

TAGGED:
Share This Article
Follow:
GeeksModo Staff is a team of iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch experts led by Moses Johnson. We're passionate about all things Apple!
3 Comments