Help

Frequently asked questions

Connecting a device, what the health number means, and how WhatBattery reads your battery.

How do I connect an iPhone or iPad over Wi-Fi?

A device shows up automatically once macOS can reach it. The setup is a one-time thing:

  1. Trust the Mac once over a cable. Connect the device with a cable, unlock it, and tap Trust (enter the passcode). The first pairing can't be done wirelessly.
  2. Turn on Wi-Fi sync. In Finder, select the device in the sidebar, open the General tab, tick "Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi", then click Apply.
  3. Same network, awake. Keep the Mac and the device on the same Wi-Fi network with the device awake, then unplug. It appears in WhatBattery's iPhone / iPad tab.

Not showing up? Make sure Finder › Settings › Sidebar has "CDs, DVDs and iOS Devices" ticked, try a different cable or port, and confirm you tapped Trust. Wi-Fi discovery can be slow; reconnecting the cable briefly wakes the link.

Can WhatBattery tell if my battery is genuine?

Not reliably, so it doesn't claim to. macOS only flags a non-genuine battery through a system process, and there's no public signal to check a genuine battery against, so any "genuine / fake" badge would be a guess. Instead WhatBattery shows the battery condition (below), which is the trustworthy "is my battery OK or does it need service" answer.

Why does WhatBattery's health differ from coconutBattery?

WhatBattery computes health the same way Apple's own Settings does, from the nominal charge capacity. Some tools read a slightly different capacity field and land a couple of points lower. Neither is wrong; WhatBattery matches the number you see elsewhere in macOS.

What do the battery conditions mean?

  • Normal: healthy, no action needed.
  • Service Recommended: worn but working; plan a replacement.
  • Service Battery: a fault macOS flags for service.

This is read from macOS, so it matches what System Settings reports.

Is it safe? Does it change how my Mac charges?

WhatBattery is strictly read-only. It reads battery and power data through Apple's own interfaces and never writes to the battery or changes charging behaviour.

What does it need?

An Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. Reading an iPhone or iPad uses the same connection Finder uses; no app is needed on the device.