Charging up your iPhone sounds like it should be a straight forward task. But there are a lot of ways to speed up (or unintentionally slow down) the charging process.
If you're in a hurry and need more battery life as quickly as possible, here's how to make your iPhone charge faster.
First thing's first: Using a wall charger — any wall charger — is going to be faster than plugging your phone into a computer's USB port. Use a wall charger if you have one.
But not all wall chargers are equal. In general, the higher the device's wattage, the faster it can deliver a charge to your iPhone. The wall charger that comes with your iPhone is relatively anemic, rated at 5 watts.
If you have an iPad, use the wall charger that came with it instead, since it delivers 12 watts and charges about 33 percent faster.
The newest crop of iPhones (which include the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X family) include fast charging. Paired with the right wall charger, these phones can go from empty to 50 percent charge in half an hour.
Apple doesn't include a fast charger in the box, though. You need to purchase a fast charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable. Apple offers its own 30 Watt USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C to Lightning adapter cable.
There are other fast charging options as well. Anker offers a 30 Watt USB-C Wall Charger, for example, and iClever has its own 30 Watt USB-C Charger. There are a lot of affordable choices.
Wireless charging (if you have a newer iPhone, or you've put an old iPhone in a wireless charging case) is admittedly a convenience. But like most conveniences, this one has an unintended cost: slow charging.
Wireless chargers work much more slowly than plugging the phone into a Lightning cable, which is why you should skip wireless if you're in a hurry.
Your iPhone will charge more slowly if it's powered on and performing tasks while it's also trying to send current to the battery. The best solution is to simply power it down.
Start the Settings app, tap "General," and then tap "Shut Down."
Sometimes it isn't practical to turn your phone off completely, but the next best thing is to put it in Airplane Mode. In Airplane Mode, your phone disables Wi-Fi and cellular service, which can save a significant amount of power, letting the phone charge faster.
To do that, pull down the Control Panel from the top right of the screen and tap the airplane icon at the top left. Or, if you're using an iPhone older than the iPhone X, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and tap the airplane icon at the top left.
You can probably guess where this is going: Just avoid doing anything with the phone while it charges. Don't stream music, browse the web, or check email. Put the phone down and leave it alone to charge in peace.
Batteries are little chemical factories, and when you charge a phone, the electric current causes chemical reactions to happen deep inside your phone.
These chemical reactions tend to heat up the battery, but they work most efficiently when the phone is cool. You can help the phone to charge faster by keeping it out of direct sunlight and in a cool location if possible. If you keep the phone in a case, consider taking it out of the case while it charges — many cases trap heat, which is bad.
In fact, if the phone gets too hot (about 95 degrees), it may stop charging completely until it has an opportunity to cool down.
This isn't something you can do in the moment, but put this on your to do list.
Your iPhone's battery will charge more efficiently if it has a chance to cycle — to go from 100 percent to completely dead about once a month or so. Every once in a while, let your phone run down all the way until it shuts down.
