10 Ways You Might Be Ruining Your iPhone

Sometimes, taking care of your iPhone can be tough. You have to take a lot of things into consideration if you want to keep its performance, battery, and even hardware in tip-top shape.
Fortunately, iPhones are durable enough to handle a lot of day-to-day situations, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things you're doing that might damage your iPhone, even if you don't realize it yet.
From not cleaning your iPhone properly to just leaving it in the wrong place for too long, there are things that, over time, will harm your iPhone.
Let's face it: iPhones are really expensive, so it's worth ensuring you're taking the best care of your device possible. To that end, read on for 10 things you need to stop doing if you want your device to last.
You're Using the Wrong Accessories
Some of us tend to spend less on iPhone accessories as we believe they aren't as important. Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Depending on the accessories you use, you should invest enough money to make sure you aren't damaging your iPhone.
The best example is your charger. Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn't come with a wall charger anymore, so you need to get one yourself. While you don't necessarily need to splurge for Apple's charger, spending too little could damage your iPhone, not charge it properly, and, in some extreme cases, could even be a fire hazard.
When buying accessories, be sure that they're from Apple or another reputable brand and that they're properly certified, as follows:
- Lightning cables and MagSafe chargers are certified under Apple's MFi (Made for iPhone) program, as this is the company's proprietary connector.
- USB chargers and cables need only be USB certified as that's an industry standard.
- Wireless chargers should be certified by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) under the Qi charging standard.
This will ensure these accessories have been tested and are safe to use. Yes, they're usually a bit more expensive, but in the long run, they'll be worth it.
Using Your iPhone While It's Charging
Having to wait to use your iPhone while it's charging doesn't sound appealing to anyone, but you know what's worse? Ruining your iPhone's battery.
Whenever you charge your iPhone, you need to use it very lightly or even leave it alone as much as possible. When you use it, it'll start to get warm — or burning hot, depending on the app you're using.
At first, this might not seem like an issue, but your lithium-ion batteries, like the one in your iPhone, aren't designed to do well with high temperatures, so using your iPhone like this could damage your battery permanently. Overall, it's best to leave it alone and unplug it once you need to use it.
Leaving Your iPhone Under the Sun
As we just mentioned, your iPhone doesn't like high temperatures. This means you should also avoid leaving it under the sun for too long.
If your iPhone gets too hot, it might even shut down until it comes back to a regular temperature. Moreover, handling these types of temperatures might damage your battery or other hardware components in the long run.
Overall, you should try to avoid leaving your iPhone under the sun for too long. This includes leaving inside your car or a very hot room.
You Aren't Keeping Your Battery Healthy

If doesn't matter if you have the most powerful iPhone in the world if your battery can't last for more than a few hours.
Your iPhone's battery will start to age over time. While that's a normal process for any rechargeable battery, there are ways for you to slow down that aging process, making your iPhone last longer than it otherwise might.
For starters, many experts recommend that you don't fully charge or fully drain your iPhone regularly. It's always been recommended that you keep your iPhone between 20% and 80% as much as possible.
Fortunately, if you always want to fully charge your iPhone, Apple has implemented a feature to help you keep your iPhone's battery from aging.
This feature is called Optimized Battery Charging, and it'll make your iPhone learn your charging patterns so it can charge itself at a slower pace once it gets to the 80% mark.
For instance, your iPhone might reach 80% at 8 PM, but it won't charge to 100% until you're ready to start your day in the morning. This will keep your battery from aging prematurely, and you won't have to worry about keeping it at 80% yourself.
If you have an iPhone 15, you can even prevent your iPhone from charging above 80% at all.
Optimized Battery Charging should be turned on by default, but you can enable it yourself by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and then turning on Optimized Battery Charging. iPhone 15 owners will find the additional option in here to set an 80% Limit, which will stop charging entirely once it reaches 80%.
You Don't Store Your Old iPhones Properly
Another easy way to ruin your iPhone, even if it's one you just keep as a spare, is to not store it properly.
Yes, there is a right way to store your old iPhones, especially if you want to use them in the future.
The first thing you need to do is to charge your iPhone to 50%. Apple recommends that keeping it like this will ensure your battery doesn't get damaged over time.
Moreover, you should store your iPhone in a place that doesn't get affected by the sun or high or low temperatures. You should also avoid dust and the possibility of water getting in your iPhone.
You're Not Cleaning Your iPhone Properly

Our iPhones are one of the dirtiest things we carry with us every day. So it's really important that you clean your device regularly.
However, most of us may not be cleaning it properly. Sure, your iPhone is water-resistant, but that doesn't mean you can just wash it.
Likewise, you shouldn't use cleaning agents on your iPhone like you're washing your clothes.
Instead, Apple recommends you use 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipes, 75 percent ethyl alcohol wipes, or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, and gently wipe the exterior surfaces of your iPhone. Don't let any moisture reach your charging port or any other openings like the earpiece, and definitely avoid products containing bleach or hydrogen peroxide.
Also, be sure to unplug all your cables and shut off your iPhone completely before cleaning it.
You Aren't Cleaning Your iPhone
On the other hand, if you aren't cleaning your iPhone at all, you might be running your iPhone and putting yourself at risk.
Phones, in general, carry a lot of germs, and some of them can be dangerous for you.
Not only that, but some dirt might get inside one of your iPhone's openings, causing issues when trying to charge your iPhone or plugging in other accessories.
Overall, it's best to clean your iPhone regularly and follow the steps we mentioned previously.
Keeping Your iPhone's Storage Full

Besides cleaning your iPhone on the outside, you should try to keep it clean on the inside as well.
Many of us tend to save a lot of pictures, files, and even apps in case we need them someday. But the truth is that we'll hardly ever need all of those things stored in our iPhones.
What does happen is that keeping your iPhone's storage full might make your iPhone feel sluggish and ruin its performance.
First, you'll need to check your iPhone's storage, which you can do by going to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. This will show you what your current storage situation looks like and what's taking up most of it.
From there, you can start deleting apps, pictures, messages, and files to reduce your storage.
Jailbreaking Your iPhone
Jailbreak might sound like an interesting and enticing idea, but it could actually bring more harm than good, especially if you don't know what you're doing.
In case you don't know, jailbreaking your iPhone means you get unrestricted access and control of your operating system. As you know, you can't install apps from the web on your iPhone, but when you jailbreak it, you can basically download any app available.
You also get the ability to control your iPhone settings in ways that Apple doesn't regularly allow.
While it might sound like a good thing, jailbreaking could potentially damage your iPhone. For starters, you won't get access to future iOS updates. Likewise, sometimes your iPhone's OS might just crash for no apparent reason. And, of course, you also run the risk of bricking your iPhone entirely if you don't do it right.
Even though there are (usually) ways to fix a jailbroken iPhone, once you do it, you might never be able to get rid of all the traces of jailbreak you did. So, if you're considering it, we suggest you think twice before you do it.
You Don't Keep Your iPhone Up to Date
One of the easiest ways to keep your iPhone in great shape is to always stay caught up with the latest software updates.
While it might feel boring to constantly update your iPhone, these updates usually bring improvements to iOS as a whole.
Most of the time, these updates come with some bug fixes and patches that will make your iPhone perform better. Others are security updates that will make sure no one can use exploits to access your iPhone's data.
And, of course, there are other software updates that will bring some new features or apps to your iPhone that you really don't want to miss.
All in all, you should keep your iPhone updated whenever possible. The good news is that you can make your iPhone search for and install updates automatically by changing a few settings. Just go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates, and turn on iOS Updates and Security Responses & System Files.