Why Is My iPhone Battery Yellow? Here’s The Fix.

Your iPhone is working perfectly, but the battery icon on your iPhone has suddenly turned yellow and you don’t know why. Don’t worry: There’s nothing wrong with your iPhone battery. In this article, I’ll explain why your iPhone battery is yellow and how to switch it back to normal.

Low Power Mode Isn’t A Fix

Low Power Mode is not a fix for iPhone battery issues — it’s a band-aid. My article called Why Does My iPhone Battery Die So Fast? explains how to permanently fix battery problems by changing a few settings on your iPhone. If you’re traveling for a few days and don’t always have access to a charger, Amazon sells some external battery packs that can really come in handy.

How Did My iPhone Battery Turn Yellow In The First Place?

If you’re reading this article, you probably didn’t turn on Low Power Mode intentionally by going to Settings -> Battery. If you had, you probably would have noticed the change right away. Here’s how it usually happens:

When your iPhone battery reaches 20%, a window appears on your iPhone to warn you that your battery level is getting low and asks if you’d like to turn on Low Power Mode. Your iPhone battery turns yellow as soon as you tap Turn On.

Low Power Mode automatically turns off when you recharge your iPhone battery past 80%.

Why Is My iPhone Battery Yellow?

Your iPhone battery is yellow because Low Power Mode is turned on. To change it back to normal, go to Settings -> Battery and tap the switch next to Low Power Mode. Low Power Mode turns off automatically when your battery level reaches 80%.

turn off low power mode

Adding Low Power Mode To Control Center

If your iPhone is running iOS 11 or newer, you can add a Low Power Mode control to Control Center. Open Settings and tap Control Center. Tap the green plus button to the left of Low Power Mode under More Controls to add it to Control Center.

add low power mode to iphone control center

Wrapping It Up

It’s easy to think that something is wrong with your iPhone when its battery turns yellow. After all, yellow means caution or warning in other areas of our lives. Remember to check out my article about how to save iPhone battery life if you’d like to avoid low power mode entirely.

You had no way of knowing that a yellow iPhone battery icon is a normal part of iOS, because it’s a brand new feature and Apple didn’t give anyone a heads up. I won’t be surprised if Apple adds an informational window that explains why the user’s iPhone battery is turning yellow to a future version of iOS.

About Author

I'm a former Apple employee and the founder of Payette Forward, and I'm here to help you with your iPhone.

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LuAnne Dupon
1 month ago

This worked a treat, thank uou

Jane
6 months ago

Solved the problem, thank you.

The Wonderful
10 months ago

Thank you!

Bruce
10 months ago

Excellent advise, my wife was going crazy with the yellow battery.

Rox
11 months ago

A Payette Forward subscriber this article very helpful, stress level 👎🏻, iPhone happiness 👍🏻

Marion
1 year ago

Very helpful! Thank you so much-Marion

Ian
1 year ago

This was very helpful. Thank you.

Jan Bailey
1 year ago

for some reason my phone is charging and when it restarted it only shows phone numbers and i cant get it to turn on , i cant put in my code and i cant read my texts or anything

Greg Carr
1 year ago

Why do I have to plug my phone up in sequence of three times in order for it to start charging

Admin
David Lynch
1 year ago
Reply to  Greg Carr

Could be something stuck in the Lightning port preventing your charging cable from making a clean connection to your iPhone.

Vette
1 year ago
Reply to  David Lynch

How to clean the lightning connector. I tried I several plugs and and Different electric outlet. Sometimes if I tie a rubber band around it and wrap it around the phone I can get it to connect but I can’t get a charge most of the time?

Louise Gurski
2 years ago

Thank you very helpful

Pat
2 years ago

Thank you very much!

Sharon
2 years ago

I read this article because my battery indicator turned yellow while my iPhone was plugged into the charger and was showing 100%. I went and turned off low power as recommended but I’m still confused why the battery indicator went yellow while plugged in. It’s an iPhone 7+, running iOS 15. The battery indicator now shows black where it used to show green.

Meryl
2 years ago

Thank you for info. Very useful.

Tim
2 years ago

Thanks for resolving the issue?

MarlA
2 years ago

Thanks! This fixed my problem. Thank you for writing this article!

Editor
Colin Boyd
2 years ago
Reply to  MarlA

Glad we could help! Thanks for reading!

Lewis
3 years ago

Thank you so much for your help. I will tag the page and I will use it in the future.

Liam Shotwell
3 years ago
Reply to  Lewis

No problem! Don’t forget to share this page with other people you know to help them out! ?

susan
3 years ago

My phone has not been on low battery and I checked the settings. Low Power mode is not on. The phone is fully charged and it is still yellow.

Karen
3 years ago
Reply to  susan

My iphone is fully charged yet the battery is yellow. What should I do?

Marianne
2 years ago
Reply to  Karen

Change battery color to green

Pamela
3 years ago

thank you