In this quick tutorial, we’ll show you which settings to turn off if you want your device to always charge to 100% and avoid battery-saving or battery health features that may limit charging or reduce performance at lower charge levels.
Some people are irritated by the fact that battery optimization features on their phone or computer automatically stop charging the device well before 100% or activate a battery-saving mode in the background, which throttles the CPU, making the device feel laggy.
While these features are thoughtful and help increase the overall lifespan or give you more use time on remaining charge, if you change phones frequently or having it work at its full potential is more important, then turning off these features (most of which are enabled out of the box) can help.
And there isn’t much to worry about, as modern batteries, at least in newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs, are super advanced and should work well for a couple of years or more, no matter how you use them.
iPhone or iPad
Follow these steps if you’re annoyed by your iPhone stopping at 80% charge or automatically entering battery-saving mode.
1) Open the iOS Settings app and tap Battery.
2) Tap Charging and do the following:
- Make sure Charge Limit is set to 100%.
- Then disable Optimized Battery Charging and select Turn Off from the popup, rather than just turning it off until tomorrow.
- While you’re here, also disable Clean Energy Charging so your iPhone charges to full, without worrying about carbon emissions.
3) Now, return to the previous battery settings screen and tap Power Mode. Turn off Low Power Mode and Adaptive Power.
From now on, your iOS device should charge to 100% at all times (unless it gets super hot, which limits charging for safety reasons).
Also, your iPhone should no longer underclock its processor to save battery, giving you maximum performance. However, you’ll still be alerted to enable Low Power Mode when the battery falls to 20%. You can choose to ignore it. Or you can go a step further and create a simple automation that forces your iPhone or iPad to never enter Low Power Mode.
MacBook
Just like the iPhone, MacBook also has Optimized Battery Charging and Low Power Mode features. Follow these steps to turn them off and ensure your laptop fully charges and always works without worrying about the battery.
1) Open System Settings and select Battery.
2) Click the drop-down menu next to Low Power Mode and set it to Never.
3) Then, click the info button ⓘ next to Charging.
4) Set Charge Limit to 100% and turn off Optimized Battery Charging. Your Mac will no longer use its brains to limit charging to 80% or 90%. Instead, it will always top up to 100%. You can leave the charger plugged in even at 100%, and your MacBook will basically draw power directly from the adapter.
5) Next, click the Options button on the main battery settings screen, and turn off ‘Slightly dim the display on battery’ and ‘Optimize video streaming while on battery.’
6) Now, click Lock Screen from the System Settings sidebar and set ‘Turn display off on battery when inactive’ to the same as ‘Turn display off on power adapter when inactive’ to have a uniform experience.
Android phone
Similar to the iPhone, an Android phone battery may also stop charging temporarily to increase its lifespan. And then you have battery-saving modes that turn on Dark Mode, delay notifications, and limit features automatically when the charge gets low. Here’s how to turn them off on an Android phone running a stock build (the steps may be different for phones with custom Android skins).
1) Open the Settings app and tap Battery.
2) Tap Battery Saver and make sure ‘Use Battery Saver’ is off. Then, tap Set a schedule and select ‘No schedule.’
3) Return to the main battery settings screen and tap Adaptive battery. Turn it off from the next screen.
4) Now, tap Optimized charging and disable ‘Use optimized charging.’
5) Do the same for Overcharge protection.
6) One more thing you can do on Android is manage battery usage on a per-app level. If you want to allow unrestricted background battery usage to an app, go to Settings > Apps > App battery usage, select an app, and set it to ‘Unrestricted.’
Your Android phone will now be free of battery optimization and saving features, ensuring you get the best performance and a 100% charge without issues.
What’s your reason for disabling these battery features?