I Bought A New iPhone SE. Let's Talk About The Battery.

[Marrk]

My new iPhone SE arrives in two days, and I want to do all the right things with regard to the battery. We discussed this before in another thread, but I'm starting a clean thread just so that I know exactly what to do after I open the box. By the way, I haven't bought a new phone in 8 years.

1) What do I do first?

2) What do I do over the life of the phone in order to best maintain the battery?

Thanks in advance, gentlemen and gentlewomen.

 

[IWT]

Bravo, Marrk. It's great to have a new iPhone.

Here are some suggestions from Apple and other sources:

How to set up your new iPhone so you can install apps, use iMessage, and more

Make your iPhone truly your own by setting it up just right from the start.

www.imore.com

Set up your iPhone or iPad – Apple Support (UK)

Find out how to set up your iPhone or iPad.

support.apple.com

Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone or iPad

Set up your new iOS device automatically using an iPhone or iPad.

support.apple.com

That's all about setting up your new iPhone. As regards battery: well, there's so much on the internet about this, but here's my mini version.

The display brightness uses a lot of battery. So, in Settings > Display & Brightness, turn on Automatic.

Look at Settings > Notifications. Look at Settings > Privacy > Location Services and use "Never", While Using", "Ask" against every app according to your needs.

Then Settings > General > Background App Refresh. This allows/disallows apps to refresh their content when on WiFi. Fine; WiFi is free but each refresh uses battery. Turning off apps helps to preserve battery life.

And so it goes on. Give these a look and come back with specific questions.

Most of all; enjoy your new iPhone!

Ian

 

[Raz0rEdge]

1. Charge it up to 100% if it isn't nearly there and done.

Enjoy the phone. Use it as you see fit, when it gets low on battery, charge it up again.

The battery is a consumable part of your phone and will naturally degrade over time. So after a couple of years of use, it will not hold as much of a charge or for as long as a brand new battery. At that point in time, if you plan on keeping the phone, just replace the battery.

 

[MacInWin]

As for battery health itself, the battery will be happiest (and last longest) if you keep it in the 80% to 50% range, maybe down to 40%, but only rarely, if ever, below that. When you recharge, go ahead and let to go all the way to 100%, but then don't leave it on the charger very long as being held at 100% can diminish battery life overall. And I think that the phone, assuming it's on the latest version of iOS, will "learn" over time what your habits are and monitor the battery appropriately. What the OS can do learn that you put the phone on charge at, let's say, midnight and then pick it up at 7 am. Once it detects that pattern, it will charge the phone to 90-95% and hold it there until just before 7 am, when it will go ahead and top it up so you have a full charge for your day. Pretty clever, actually. But like Ashwin said, just use the phone and enjoy it. The battery will last 3-4 years with normal use pretty much whatever you do. It might stretch to 5, if you baby it, but no battery lasts forever.

 

[Marrk]

On the new phone, can I "Set Up As New" and then load just my Contacts (from my old phone) using the backup that I have on iTunes on my laptop? Or do I have to "Restore From a Previous Device" and transfer everything from the old phone?

I don't want to buy the complete dinner. I want to order a la carte.

 

[chscag]

You can setup the new phone anyway you wish. But if you restore from an iTunes backup, you'll restore everything not just the contacts.

If you had been using iCloud to store your contacts, then they will sync to your new phone without ever having to restore from iTunes.

You are using iCloud, aren't you?

 

[Marrk]

^^Both.

iCloud Backup is "On," and I just did a "Back Up Now."

I also made a backup in iTunes on my laptop.

 

[chscag]

Not talking about an iCloud backup as that too will restore everything. I'm referring to whether or not you are syncing your contacts via iCloud? If not, there are other ways to just transfer the contacts from your old phone to the new one without having to restore everything.

 

[Marrk]

I think I fixed it.

iCloud ---> Apps Using iCloud ---> Contacts "On"

Is Contacts synched now in the way that you meant?

 

[chscag]

Yep, you got it.

 

[Rod]

After trying just about every method, including iMazing backups I have come to the conclusion that setting up a new iPhone is easier if you setup as a New iPhone.
Charge it first up to 100%
You can erase your old iPhone following the instructions found here; https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351 assuming you have saved all your passwords and account details first.
Put your SIM card from the old phone into the new one and begin the Setup procedure on the new iPhone. It doesn't take long.
Once you have setup your Apple Account everything backed up in iCloud will sync to the phone including your Apple email account. You will need to set the others (if you have any) up manually.
All of your third party apps can be downloaded again from your App Store Purchases page and music from iTunes account. Photos will sync from My Photo Stream if you use that.
Your phone will be useable almost immediately after setup but it will take a while to download everything else. I completed that o/night.
As for the Battery life, I try to avoid allowing it to overcharge or to stay at 100% for any extended time and never store it fully charged. I never let it get below 20% and most often no less than 30%. That's it! As Jake mentioned, Optimized Battery Charging in Battery Health stops your phone from overcharging o/night.

 

[Marrk]

Got the new iPhone SE today. Did Manual Set-Up.

Question: How long does it take to activate? It's been more than three hours, and I'm still getting "Activating your iPhone" and the whirling circle. I read online that it could take 24 hours. Is this the experience of folks here?

Thanks.

 

[Rod]

Well, it wasn't my experience. Basically I just turned it on with my current SIM card inserted, followed the steps as presented, eg https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202033 and waited till setup completed. I suppose different internet speeds, mobile network providers etc could vary but by the next day it was all completed. Of course I still had to setup Siri, download a few apps, add a few email accounts and set preferences but that was secondary to the functional aspects. By that I mean I could make and receive calls, texts, etc.

 

[chscag]

Question: How long does it take to activate? It's been more than three hours, and I'm still getting "Activating your iPhone" and the whirling circle. I read online that it could take 24 hours. Is this the experience of folks here?

Not sure what you mean by "activating"? To me that sounds like you're waiting for your carrier to activate your new SE so you have service?

If you're referring to Apple, then I have to agree with Rod.

 

[Marrk]

Not sure what you mean by "activating"? To me that sounds like you're waiting for your carrier to activate your new SE so you have service?

If you're referring to Apple, then I have to agree with Rod.

I believe I am in the part of the process where I am waiting for the carrier to activate the new SE. This is not an "Unlocked" phone. When I bought it, I gave Apple my cell phone number and anything else they requested, and they set-up the phone before shipment. During the "Set Up Manually," the app. asked me if the preprogrammed cell number was correct, and it was.

I've got a cell carrier icon and a WiFi icon, so I believe that the phone can connect to the Internet.

Hope that helps.

 

[chscag]

Okay Mark, now we understand what's going on. I have purchased a phone from Apple before and asked that it be carrier specific. At that time, Apple set it up in the store and by the time I left it was activated and ready to be used.

I no longer purchase phones that way. I purchase the unlocked version and then I merely have to swap my SIM card and activation is automatic.

It does sound like though that your phone is now activated and ready to go. Have fun and let us know if we can be of any more assistance.

 

[Marrk]

Nope. Not activated. Seems to be stuck in the activation procedure for now. 8 hrs and still waiting.

 

[MacInWin]

I would suggest you contact your carrier to see what is going on. Activation takes seconds, maybe minutes. Not hours.

 

[Marrk]

I would contact them, but I don't have a phone.

Can I stop the activation and restart it?

 

[MacInWin]

Can I stop the activation and restart it?

Can't hurt. Did you move the SIM from one phone to this one? Did you follow Apple's direction on how to do that?