show battery percentage on iPhone 3GS 

Here’s another very quick, basic tip for any of you who are iPhone 3GS owners.  It’s one that is very simple, but took me some time to come across, because it’s slightly buried in the Settings app – how to make the battery percentage indicator show up in your status bar.

To make the %age indicator show up – just alongside and to the left of the standard battery indicator – just go to Settings > General > Usage – and toggle the Battery Percentage setting to On.

A small, simple setting that I’m very glad to see on the 3GS.

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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }

1 dkknight June 21, 2009 at 12:53 am

I have this on my iPhone 3G ………as well I had it before the 3.0 update
here's a screen shot of mine just follow the link below:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a117/dkknight/?...

2 patrickj June 21, 2009 at 2:07 am

Nice screenie, and some nice apps there too. :)

3 Steven Buehler June 21, 2009 at 1:12 am

Not available on my 3G in the U.S.

4 patrickj June 21, 2009 at 1:52 am

It's a 3GS only feature – which is a little absurd IMO – unless you are jailbroken.

5 Thomas June 21, 2009 at 1:47 am

I don't have that on my unlocked 1st-gen on 3.0. I also don't have the option to "hide" default apps, which I read about here: http://iphonefreakz.com/2009/06/18/undiscovered-f...

basically says there should be a "more" tab on the app store to help you hide certain apps, since you can have more apps than the 11 homescreens can show. Strange thing to not include on 1st gens. So many weird kinks to this upgrade.

6 patrickj June 21, 2009 at 1:58 am

If you have a jailbroken phone, there should be apps around that let you add the battery %age meter.
The 'More' tab in the App Store did appear during the last beta, but I do not see it anymore in the final 3.0 build.
As for the hiding, there was never a setting that helped you do that – the article you linked seems to suggest that you can end up hiding built-in apps by placing them on a last screen and then going beyond the maximum 11 screens of apps …

7 Phossil June 22, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Jailbreak and then enable it in the newest version of SBSettings (might also be available in BossPrefs)

8 patrickj June 22, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Phossil – thanks for the reminder on which apps will do this for jailbroken iPhones. Of course this is not possible on the 3GS yet, as there is no jailbreak for it as yet.

9 photoTristan June 22, 2009 at 4:48 pm

I did a video showing how to do this as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dCshOhqkI

10 patrickj June 22, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Well done on the video – thanks for sharing it!

11 phototristan August 25, 2009 at 3:28 pm

You're welcome!

12 kongjie June 23, 2009 at 11:52 pm

"Usage" is an odd name for something that allows configurable preferences. I never would have found the percentage option without reading this.

13 patrickj June 24, 2009 at 1:44 am

That's exactly what I thought – they sort of buried it in my view. :)

14 Dee August 25, 2009 at 4:10 am

I have an iphone 3G and i don't have the option to show battery percentage. Do I have a bad phone?

15 patrickj August 25, 2009 at 3:26 pm

No you don't – this feature is specific to the iPhone 3GS – ridiculous but true.

16 waldhorn September 20, 2009 at 6:19 pm

I have two original 2G phones that were once jailbroken (with Boss-Prefs enabled) and later un-jailbroken. After updating to 3.01, one emerged with a percentage indicator and option while the other didn't. Neither have an available toggle setting under Usage.

17 patrickj September 20, 2009 at 9:31 pm

That must be a 'leftover' from the previous jailbreak on that phone. The %age indicator is not available on stock models of the 3G or 2G iPhones.

18 BRI October 12, 2009 at 6:43 am

Definte leftover from jailbreak and using boss -prefs or SBSsettings. Just jailbroke and then un-jailbroke after installing sbssettings and my 2g iPhone now has the battery % viewable… though I can't get rid of it.

19 Karim October 17, 2009 at 1:05 am

have a 3GS 3.1.2 and this option (toggle battery percentage on or off) doesn't exist at all on my phone!!??

20 patrickj October 17, 2009 at 3:37 pm

You should see it under Settings > General > Usage. I've not heard of it disappearing via jailbreak or any method – it should just be there.

21 patrickj June 23, 2009 at 1:58 am

kev – I think that sounds like 'leftovers' from using something like Make It Mine or similar when jailbroken. I've never experienced that (or used that app) but have seen many folks report seeing remnants like that even after full restores.

22 patrickj June 24, 2009 at 4:41 pm

gork – that's true on the redeem ability – there was a 'More' button in the App Store which has also disappeared in the final version of OS 3.0. I expect we'll probably see that come back soon in the next OS update.

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