Batteries degrade, and iPhones in particular are far from immune. So have you ever wondered if there is a way to check how many battery cycles your iPhone has? Having that exact number could give you precise information about the status of your battery. And while there is no such native function built in iOS, there is still a way to do that.
What are iPhone battery cycles?
Battery age is measured in battery cycles, where one cycle is equal to the process of draining and completely filling up the battery once. This can mean that you use up your battery from 100% until the phone is at 0%, or completely dead, or you can drain 55% of that battery one day and 45% the next day, and together, the two days combine for one, complete 100% battery cycle.
Now that we know how you get 1 battery cycle count, we need to know how many cycles can an iPhone battery go through before its capacity deteriorates significantly. Apple’s official support page gives the following Li-Ion battery longevity for different products.
How long is a battery supposed to last?
- iPhone – 500 cycles
- Apple Watch – 1,000 cycles
- iPad – 1,000 cycles
- iPod – 400 cycles
- Macbook – 1,000 cycles
Typically it would take about two years — but it could be more or less depending on individual usage — to get to that critical number. When you hit that limit, this means that the Li-Ion battery has degraded to 80% of its full capacity.
So how do you check how many battery cycles is your iPhone battery on? Apple has blocked apps reporting battery cycle count on the App Store, so you will need to your iPhone, a Lightning cable and a desktop computer to check. While there may be other solutions, we use iBackupBot, an app available for both Windows and Mac as a free 7-day trial and paid after that. We walk you through the process of setting it up and learning about your iPhone battery cycle count right below.
How to check your iPhone battery cycles
2. Open the iPhone listed under Devices (1st arrow). You should see a picture of an iPhone with various options on the right panel. Click on “More information” (2nd arrow).
4. However, starting with iOS 11.3, you might skip the aforementioned steps and simply check the Battery Health menu of your device, which will show you a percentage of the overall battery health, You won’t see the total battery cycles, but the important information will be visible right there.
