Does your iPhone battery charge go from 100% to 0 in just a couple of hours? Or, is it plagued by frequent crashes and lagging performance?

It sounds like you’re dealing with a dying battery. And these aren’t the only signs that your iPhone battery’s dying. We have more examples to share where those came from.

Even better, we’re going to explain in detail several surefire ways to accurately check the status of your battery. To find out once and for all if it’s time to replace your iPhone battery, try these 5 easy steps.

1. Check the Maximum Capacity Rating of Your Battery in Your Settings

The easiest way to check the status of your iPhone’s battery is through your settings menu. Here’s how to do it.

Open up your settings menu and tap on Battery, then Battery Health. Here, you’ll see the most important indicator of a dying battery: your Maximum Capacity rating. This percentage tells you the maximum amount of energy your battery can hold when you charge it.

A new, fully-functioning battery will have a Maximum Capacity rating of 100%. This means your battery can charge all the way up to a completely full charge.

But, as batteries age and are recharged over and over again, the total amount they can hold with each recharge is diminished. So, let’s say your Maximum Capacity rating measures 56%. That means that your battery can now only hold about half as much energy as it used to, even if your battery gauge reads 100%.

The Difference Between Charge Level and Maximum Capacity

This is important to note. When you recharge your battery, the battery meter (the one that tells you when you need to recharge) will read 100%.

This just means that the battery is as full as it can get, not that it is truly full. It’s actually only as full as your Maximum Capacity rating says it can be.

2. Check Peak Performance Capacity

Also in the Battery Health Settings, you’ll see Peak Performance Capacity. This will also help you know when to replace your iPhone battery.

For example, if your battery is still doing well, this section will tell you so. Specifically, there will be a message saying that your battery is, in fact, “supporting normal peak performance.”

However, you will see a different message if your iPhone has experienced a battery-related shutdown. In this case, the message will report that, due to this shutdown, “Performance Management has been applied.” In other words, the performance of all your phone’s features has been slowed down to prevent more crashes.

You’re now faced with the option to disable the Performance Management feature. This might speed up the performance of your phone, but it also might make it crash more frequently.

Degraded Battery Message

Furthermore, there might also be an additional message in this section, warning you of “significantly degraded” battery health. The warning also states that it’s time to seek a replacement from an authorized Apple service provider.

3. Doublecheck the Status of Your Battery With Other iOS Apps

Aside from this, there are other iOS apps you can use to check the health status of your battery, like Battery Life. Plus, these apps give you additional details that you can’t find in your phone settings.

These stats can give you important insight into why your battery is dying in the first place. That way, you can avoid making these same mistakes when you buy a replacement battery.

Some of these apps even give you an estimate of how soon your battery will die completely. Besides this, these apps are good for comparison, that is, to get a “second opinion” regarding the health of your battery.

4. Check the Status of Your Battery With a Mac

There’s even an app for macs called coconutBattery that can diagnose the health of your iPhone battery. This app will tell you the history of your battery life, most importantly, charge cycles.

You can only charge your iPhone battery a certain number of times before it’s dead forever. (You can research for yourself the average number of charge cycles your specific iPhone model gets before it dies.) Knowing how many charge cycles your battery has left will tell you approximately how long until you need to replace it.

5. Check For These Other Signs of a Dying Battery in Your iPhone

Now, there’s hardly any reason to doubt the accuracy of the battery health reports you get from the steps above. Still, those tests aren’t 100% accurate. There are certain factors that might prevent an accurate report using those methods.

For that reason, your last step is to watch for these additional signs of a dying iPhone battery.

1. You Have to Charge Your Battery More Often

As mentioned, the maximum charge capacity of your iPhone battery decreases with each recharge. If your “fully charged” battery only lasts for two hours, it probably needs replacing.

2. Your iPhone Keeps Crashing or Slowing Down

We also mentioned how iPhones have a tendency to crash when the battery gets overwhelmed. This happens more frequently the closer the battery gets to death. Plus, it might trigger Performance Management, which causes your phone to lag.

3. Your iPhone Keeps Getting Hot

Sometimes, heat can result when a worn-out battery is trying hard to continue working. In this case, you should definitely replace the battery as this could become a fire hazard. The high heat might also damage other components of your phone.

4. Your iPhone Is Bulging

Similar to a hot battery, some batteries start swelling up as they die. This, too, is hazardous and can damage your phone.

5. You’ve Troubleshot Your iPhone and Are Still Experiencing Problems

Many of these problems, especially short battery life, might be caused by excessive drain. That is, certain apps (or keeping the screen brightness at 100% at all times) might be draining huge amounts of energy from your phone. 

Look up ways to troubleshoot for common battery drain offenders. If your problems continue, it’s likely that your battery needs replacing.

Use These Steps to Diagnose a Dying Battery

Now that you know how, use these steps to see if you’ve got a dying battery in your iPhone. Also, please share this guide with any of your friends who have an iPhone so that they can benefit, too.

Next, check out some more of our helpful technology guides. Want to improve your Google search rank or learn about cool MacBook Pro features? Find these and other great articles on our Technology blog.