I woke up yesterday morning, grabbed my iPhone off charge, and immediately felt a wave of annoyance. I had a full day ahead, but my phone screen was sitting at a frustratingly specific 80% charge.
At first, I assumed my charging cable was loose, or on its last legs. But after purchasing a replacement and experiencing the same issue, I realized it wasn't a hardware failure — my phone was doing this on purpose.
It turns out iOS includes a battery setting designed to protect your device’s long-term health. While preventing chemical wear on lithium-ion batteries is great in theory, it’s a nightmare when you actually need full charge to get through the day.
Fortunately, if your iPhone is holding back on battery life, there is a quick fix to get back to 100%.
1. Open your Settings menu
Open the Settings app on your iPhone, scroll down the main list, and tap Battery.
2. Access your charging options
Tap on Charging (or Battery Health & Charging if you are running an older version of iOS).
3. Adjust your charge limit back to 100%
If you are on an iPhone 15 or newer, drag the Charge Limit slider all the way up to 100%.
On older devices, tap Charging Optimization and switch it to None or turn off Optimized Battery Charging.
Since disabling the cap, my iPhone reaches a full 100% charge every single night.
If you worry about long-term battery degradation, you can always slide the cap back down before going to bed if you need to.
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