iPhone 12 / 12 Pro not charging past 80 %? Fix

Have you been waiting for your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro to get fully charged before leaving the house, but it just won’t charge past 80%? You’ve switched chargers, changed USB cables, rebooted the device, but it’s still stuck at 80%? Well, the good news is that your iPhone is not faulty; neither is its battery. In this article, we’ll explain why your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro sometimes doesn’t charge past 80% and how To fix the issue.

We do almost everything on our smartphones these days; it’s our daily companion. Therefore, the importance of a phone with a long-lasting battery cannot be overstated. A phone that charges fast is even way better. So it’s understandable how frustrated you might be that your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro won’t charge past 80 percent. We explain why that happens and how you can get it fixed.

why your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 pro doesn’t charge past 80%

There are two known reasons why this happens.

1. Optimized Battery Charging

The main reason why your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro is not charging above 80% mark is because your phone isn’t letting it. Yes, you read that right. Your iPhone’s battery isn’t faulty; neither is the phone spoilt or anything. But why?

The agent responsible for your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro not charging past 80% is known as ‘Optimized Battery Charging.’ That was one of the many features that were introduced on iOS 13. The ‘Optimized Battery Charging’ feature delays your phone’s battery charge at 80% for as long as you aren’t using your device.

According to Apple, the feature was designed to use machine learning to study your daily usage pattern and charging routine so that it can limit charging at 80% until you need to use your device. For context, say you mostly use your iPhone between 10 AM and 10 PM every day, your device takes note of that. So when you plug your iPhone to charge anytime outside your regular usage period, the charge level may not go beyond 80% charge.

Benefits of Optimized Battery Charging

One of the many mistakes that cripple your iPhone battery life is constantly charging the device to 100%. Research has shown that leaving your phone between 30-80% helps you get the best out of your phone’s power back-up, most especially Lithium-Ion batteries. Constantly charging your iPhone to 100% will degrade the battery over time and reduce its lifespan faster.

The ‘Optimized Battery Charging’ feature prevents this by stopping the charging process on your iPhone when the battery hits 80%. As your regular phone usage hours (determined by the iOS machine learning algorithm) draws near, charging continues slowly till the battery mark hits 100%. That helps to prolong your iPhone battery life and prevent your device’s battery from wearing out faster.

2. Battery Temperature

Overcharging your iPhone leads to the generation of excessive heat, which is detrimental to battery health. The heat generated during charging exerts stress on your device battery and greatly reduces its lifespan.

Thankfully, iOS is smart enough to stop charging at 80% if it detects that your battery temperature has gone beyond the recommended level (set by Apple). So, when your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro doesn’t charge past 80%, it could be because your battery temperature has exceeded the set limit.

See also: How To Fix iPhone 12 Overheating Issues

Need to get your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro charged beyond 80% quickly? Check the methods below.

If you have experienced your iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro battery not charging to 100%, here are some things to try and alleviate the issue.

1. Disable Optimized Battery Charging

The Optimized Battery Charging feature puts the health of your iPhone’s battery above your smartphone needs. And that makes sense. Before you proceed to disable the feature, you should know that Optimized Battery Charging will eventually get your phone charged past 80%, but only when you need to use your phone.

If you cannot wait and you need your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro battery charged beyond 80% immediately, follow the steps below to disable Optimized Battery Charging on your iPhone.

Please nOTE: Optimized Battery Charging is enabled by default and is active only when your iPhone predicts that it will be connected to a charger for an extended time.

Step 1: start the Settings app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap Battery.

Step 3: Tap on Battery Health.

Step 4: Tap on ‘Optimised Battery Charging’ to toggle it off.

Step 5: You can choose to either ‘Turn Off Until Tomorrow’ to temporarily disable the feature till the next day or ‘Turn Off’ to permanently disable the feature until you manually re-enable it.

Now your iPhone 12 will charge without occasionally getting stuck at 80%.

See also: How To Maintain iPhone 12 Battery Health

2. Change Charging Location

As we’ve already pointed out, your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro battery could get stuck at 80% if it gets too hot during charging. If you have disabled ‘Optimised Battery Charging’ but your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro doesn’t charge past 80%, you need to make sure the charging environment is conducive enough. You should charge your iPhone in a cool, well-ventilated environment. You also want to avoid charging your iPhone near other appliances, electronics, or devices that generate heat.

3. Take Off iPhone Case

Are you using a phone case on your phone? You should remove it if you notice your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro won’t charge past 80%. Smartphones get heated up to some extent when they are being charged, and phone cases (particularly the thick and bulky ones) could prevent heat from being dissipated into the atmosphere, thereby raising your phone and battery temperature.

4. Use Original Charging Accessories

Using fake/uncertified/third-party charging accessories could also cause your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro to stop charging when it reaches a particular percentage. Ensure you charge your device with the charging accessories that shipped with it out-of-the-box or the ones that are Apple MFI certified. Also, ensure you buy and use chargers from an authorized store that sells genuine accessories.

Some users have been able to get their iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro charged past 80% mark by simply ditching third-party charging accessories for genuine ones. You should do the same too.

iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 battery not charging to 100%? Problem solved!

If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro is not charging to 100%, you may notice that it remains at the 80% threshold or something close to that (like 83-84% for me). That’s because Apple introduced a new feature in iOS 13 called “Optimized Battery Charging.” This feature has the software preventing or delaying your device’s charging at 80% for as long as you aren’t using the device.

You may find your iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 battery not charging to 100% because of the battery temperature. When you overcharge your iPhone or iPad, it may generate a lot of heat, which is detrimental to battery health. The heat that your device generates while charging basically exerts extra stress on the battery, reducing its lifespan. Again, Optimized Battery Charging and iOS can limit charging beyond 80% if the battery temperature exceeds Apple’s recommended limits. While the Optimized Battery Charging feature is supposed to help you extend your battery’s life, maybe you want to turn it off to see if your device can fully charge to 100%.

See also: How to Extend iPhone 12 Battery Life

2 thoughts on “iPhone 12 / 12 Pro not charging past 80 %? Fix”

  1. My “Optimised battery Charging” is turned OFF still it wont charge beyond 80%. I’ve tried charging with a different adapter, removed the phone case, tried charging in different locations away from any other electronics device. BUT still it wont go beyond 80%. What do I do?

    Reply
    • Hi,, I’m having the same issue I did every thing that Apple support requested , No changes at all….. very disappointed !!!

      Reply

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