How to check iPhone battery health on your iPhone and Mac
To check iPhone battery health, open Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Health & Charging on iPhone 11 to iPhone 14, or Battery Health on iPhone 15 and later. Read Maximum Capacity and any service recommendation first. Apple's screen is enough for a quick check; on a Mac, Yado adds battery readings, current charging power and a capacity history collected over time.
Check the battery on the iPhone first
You can do this without connecting the phone to a computer or installing another app. On the battery health screen, look for Maximum Capacity, then check whether iOS recommends a replacement. On iPhone 15 and later running iOS 17.4 or later, the same screen also shows cycle count, manufacture date and first use. Apple documents the different Settings paths by model.
Keep the current battery percentage separate from Maximum Capacity. A phone charged to 100 percent has filled the capacity its battery currently holds; that does not mean the battery retains all its original capacity. If you only wanted to know whether the battery has aged, these readings and Apple's service message are a useful place to stop.
What maximum capacity and cycle count measure
Maximum capacity compares how much charge the battery can hold with what it could hold when new. Chemical aging reduces that capacity, so a full charge can provide less time between charges. Capacity also differs from the battery's ability to deliver a burst of power, which helps explain why a percentage alone cannot describe every battery problem. Apple explains both in its battery and performance guide.
A cycle measures accumulated battery use. Using 75 percent of the battery one day, recharging overnight, then using 25 percent the next day adds up to one cycle. Plugging in twice does not by itself count as two cycles, and there is no need to drain the battery completely before charging. See Apple's explanation of charge cycles.
Apple's design figures depend on the model. Under ideal conditions, batteries in iPhone 14 and earlier are designed to retain 80 percent of original capacity at 500 complete cycles; for iPhone 15 and later, the figure is 1000 complete cycles. Actual capacity depends on regular use and charging. These are design figures, so use them as context rather than a countdown to a mandatory replacement.
Read iPhone battery health on a Mac
If you want the readings beside your other device information, connect the iPhone to the Mac with a USB cable and open Yado. Unlock the phone and complete its trust request if prompted, then select Overview. For the wider connection workflow, see manage an iPhone from a Mac.
The Battery tile puts the current charge percentage in the large figure. Its lower line shows maximum capacity and cycle count when available. While the phone is charging, the tile can also show the watts it is taking in at that reading.
For more detail, open the Yado logo menu and choose Hardware Check. In its Battery section, read these fields together:
| Reading | What to use it for |
|---|---|
| Maximum capacity | The battery's reported capacity percentage |
| Cycle count | Accumulated complete charge cycles |
| Design capacity | The design capacity reported by the phone, in mAh |
| Full charge capacity | The reported capacity in mAh, using nominal charge capacity when available |
| Temperature | The battery temperature, when the phone supplies it |
| Charging power | The phone's reported input power while charging |
| Charger | Wired or wireless connection and the negotiated adapter wattage when available |
Yado reads these values from the phone's battery diagnostics. It uses the reported maximum-capacity percentage when available, with a rounded nominal-to-design capacity calculation as a fallback. The mAh field prefers nominal capacity so it can be read alongside the percentage, rather than mixing different capacity readings without explanation.
Why charging watts change
The number printed on a power adapter describes its rating. Yado's charging-power figure comes from the phone's current power-input telemetry, so it describes what the phone is taking in at that moment. Hardware Check keeps the negotiated adapter wattage under Charger, separate from Charging power. Neither the adapter rating nor the current input figure is a battery-health percentage.
The input figure also differs from power flowing into the battery itself. Hardware Check can show battery Voltage and signed Current, while the charging-power value comes from the phone's system input. Comparing the adapter's label with battery current multiplied by voltage would mix different measurement points.
A lower reading near full charge can be expected. Apple says the iPhone gradually reduces charging current as the battery approaches full charge. A phone at a different charge level is therefore a poor comparison for checking whether a charger has become slower.
For a useful comparison, note the charge level, connected accessories and what the phone is doing. A computer or hub sharing power with other devices can provide less power, and demanding apps can slow charging. If charging pauses because of temperature, move the phone and charger somewhere cooler and check Settings, then Battery for the charging status. Apple's charging-speed guidance covers these cases.
Build a capacity history over a month
Yado records available maximum-capacity readings on this Mac when the phone connects, even if you never open Hardware Check. It keeps one reading per recorded day for each phone, replacing an earlier reading from that day. It cannot populate months before this Mac started collecting those samples.
The Capacity over time line appears in Hardware Check once there are at least two samples spanning 30 days. Its ends show a month and capacity percentage. A missing graph during the first few weeks is expected, and connecting more often on one day cannot turn a short history into a month-long one.
Use the line to compare recorded capacity across dates. It is not a forecast of a replacement date, and a straight segment between two readings does not mean Yado observed every day between them.
Check cable speed separately from charging power
On Overview, click the USB generation shown under Connection to open Cable, then read Link speed. This is the data link to the Mac. USB 2.0 and USB 3 describe that link, while watts describe power, so a charging-power reading does not tell you how fast photos will copy.
On a Lightning iPhone, Yado's Cable card says Lightning tops out at 480 Mb/s, so another cable won't be faster. With USB-C, check the model and cable together: Apple lists the iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro, 17 Pro and 18 Pro models and iPhone Duo as supporting up to 10 Gbit/s with a USB 3 cable. The included iPhone USB-C cable supports USB 2 speeds, as Apple's USB-C connection guide explains.
Treat the link figure as the connection's capability, rather than a promised file-copy rate. On a supported Pro model, a USB 2.0 link is a reason to check the cable before a large export. On a Lightning phone, changing cables cannot add USB 3 support. The photo-transfer guide covers the export itself.
Handle missing readings and replacement advice
If Hardware Check cannot read the phone, unlock the iPhone and try again. A missing temperature row means that reading was not available, and a capacity value shown as -- is missing information, not zero capacity. If charging is reported without watts, Yado has the charging state but no usable power reading.
For replacement decisions, return to the phone's battery-health screen. Apple says that a Service indication is a reason to consider replacement to restore performance and capacity, then follow the onscreen instructions. Its battery troubleshooting page gives that guidance without requiring you to infer a replacement date from cycle count.
If the phone reports that it cannot verify a genuine Apple battery, Apple's battery and performance guide warns that the health information may be inaccurate. Have the battery checked rather than trying to settle the issue by comparing percentages in several apps. Before arranging service, you can also make a local iPhone backup on the Mac.