Check your battery’s health

As we mentioned earlier, Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time – or sometimes, earlier than they should. If you’re seeing really low battery life, it’s useful to check the physical health of your battery, so you know whether age has caught up with it, or – if it’s fairly new – whether you need to take a trip to the Genius Bar. On your iOS device, in Settings > Battery, a message should show at the top of the page saying that your battery needs to be serviced, if that’s the case. But that’s a bit vague – we want more information!

CoconutBattery is a free Mac app (coconut-flavour.com) that tells you the maximum charge your battery can currently hold, and how that compares to when it was new, immediately indicating any deterioration. It detects your MacBook’s battery right away, but if you connect an iOS device over USB, it can show the same information for that. It also shows how many charge cycles the battery has been though. Handily, you can click the sign to store that data, and then use the History tab to compare over time!