The Batterygate scandal took everyone by storm and Apple is still busy dodging its bullets. You can now wait for the upcoming inbuilt solution or you can try the following tutorial to disable iPhone throttling.
Table of Contents
What is CPU/battery throttling?
Once your iPhone’s battery wears out, Apple deliberately decreases the device’s performance.
Apple began throttling the CPU performance on the following models beginning from iOS 10.2.1 –
- iPhone 6/6 plus
- iPhone 6s/6s plus
- iPhone SE
You can read more about this scandal here.
This feature is also available for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus on all versions above and including iOS 11.2.
If you own an iPhone 8/8+ or iPhone X, you are in luck. Apple will not throttle these smartphones until iOS 12 so you have still got a good few months to enjoy peak performance.
Is manually disabling throttling safe?
Poking around in the root filesystem of your device has its risks. With that said, this is completely safe to do provided you don’t edit any unrelated files or entries.
We will delete a few files that Apple places on your device to reduce its performance. Once you delete them, your device will return to its original performance and capabilties.
Here are the GeekBench results of a user who tried the exact same method.
Needless to say, there’s a significant increase in performance in both single-core and multi-core tests.
You should only follow this tutorial if you satisfy these conditions –
- Your device lags or becomes unresponsive at low battery levels.
- You have an old worn-out battery.
- Battery capacity is below 80%.
- Battery wear is above 20%.
Remember, this tutorial is for all those users who own any of the affected devices. If your battery isn’t below 80% in terms of capacity, you don’t need to use this method.
However, it’s useless for those who use an iPhone 7/7+ because it doesn’t have throttling enabled on iOS 11.1.2 and below.
Requirements
- An affected iPhone
- iOS 10.2.1 or above
- Root access (jailbreak)
- Filza File manager
How to disable CPU performance throttling on iPhone
Step 1 Install Filza file manager on your iPhone. Here’s where you can install it depending on your firmware version –
- iOS 10.2.1-10.3.3 – Download Filza from BigBoss repository via Cydia.
- iOS 11-11.1.2 – Filza is not yet available for these versions via Cydia. You can manually install FilzaEscaped from this link to access your device’s root filesystem.
Step 2 Open Filza form your home screen.
Step 3 Navigate to this location – System/Library/Watchdog/ThermalMonitor.bundle/[Device model number].bundle. Your model number looks something like this – N61AP. If you don’t your model number, download Lirum Device Info Lite or System Guard application from the App Store.
The colors are a bit off below since I am using Eclipse X.
Step 4 Open the info.plist file. Don’t forget to copy and backup this file to another location. If you remove it accidentally, here’s a backup copy of this file.
Step 5 Search for contextualClampParams and tap on the “i” icon next to it.
Step 6 Delete the following entries or values in that file –
- lowParamsPeakPower
- lowParamsSpeaker
- lowParamsCPU
- lowParamsGPU
If these entries are missing from your device, Apple isn’t throttling it.
Step 7 Restart your device.
Step 8 (Optional) You can also check GeekBench and AnTuTu benchmark scores of your device afterward. This will give you an idea about the performance boost your device gets after disabling throttling. If you notice little to no change, your device doesn’t have throttling enabled.
This tutorial might seem a bit daunting to some. If that’s the case, I suggest waiting for a proper Cydia tweak from a reputed developer.
For more jailbreak tips and tricks, give us a thumbs up on Twitter and Facebook.
Can we do this on iOS 12? I tried to delete it and restarted my device but after I rebooted the entries reappeared.
No, you can’t do this on iOS 12.
Oh ok. I hope this can be done on iOS 12
It works..I’m so excited 😆 🙏🏻!!
omg! thanks a lot for this information! this trick just bring life back to my i phone 6s on ios 11.1.2.
Geek Bench score
Before
Single core = 943
multi core = 1615
After
single core = 2389
Multi core =4153
That’s great, Usman.
My iPhone is sooooo slow now! Can anyone help me? Can’t get back the info.plist thing because I can’t jailbreak anymore, just too much lack of power 🙁
I will try to find a backup file for you.
EDIT: Was able to jailbreak again, finally! But still the same slow cpu and gpu score 🙁
Can’t find my info.plist backup anymore. Please help me! Do I need to update of something. I don’t care if I lose my jailbreak, I just want to get my speed back.
Here’s the link – https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bzq73e60qijlfgg/AADmbaei9gKIq0clM1DCCI8Ta?dl=0 for iPhone 6s.
logically, this tweak should reduce battery life. Why is it advised to do this for the phones with weak batteries? thanks
Yes, it will but it gives back control to the user. If you don’t like your device shutting down, use this tweak.
There is no watchdog file in my iphone 6 plus ios10.3.3 .. Why ?
It is not throttled then.
( Sorry for my english ) Does this cause any problems to the device? Does it gets problem in future if i update my device to ios 11 ?
No, it won’t lead to any issues but I would recommend not using this method if you are not familiar with iPhone’s filesystem.
Some body help. I need original info.plist for iPhone 6 iOS 10.3
Here you go – https://app.box .com/s/s7rs2fcb26ny1yv7r9994rxcdmspz98o
Thank you but this file from iOS 11.1 What will if use it on iOS 10.3
You can get that file for your version from someone who owns a similar device/version.
Great…
Worked for me.
My score on antutu benchmark before throttling 44300 and after disabling throttling 77045… i just wanna say. It’s awesome.
That’s great!
When you say ‘restart your phone’ – that would lose the jailbreak.
IS this what you mean? Or ‘restring your device’
Can anyone confirm?
respring* – sorry
Yes, you must reboot your device afterward. You can always re-jailbreak by running the jailbreak application again.
Lowparamspeakpower is missing
Results were worst after modifications :
iPhone 6 10.3.1 – Geekbench 4.2.1
Before : SC=1592 / MC=2695
After : SC=592 / MC=964
I restored my “info.plist” file!
My phone battery drained faster after doing this. I use an iPhone 5s 11.1.2
Here’s the info.plist
https://www.reddit .com/r/jailbreak/comments/84qptt/question_hi_i_need_infoplist_for_n51ap_iphone5s/?st=JETE2O85&sh=9a92438a
Didn’t find (contextualClampParams)
iphone 7 plus iOS 11.1
It does really improved a bit on my iPhone 6 Plus
Before:
SINGLE CORE: 1268
MULTI CORE: 2146
Now:
SINGLE CORE: 1485
MULTI CORE: 2612
Iphone 7 plus Geekbench
Before :single core 3305
Afer: 3476
Multicore: before 5411
After; 5965!!!!
Better performance on iphone 7. Not massive like 6s (from 2200 to 4400) but is good!!! Thanks
Glad it worked for you, mate.
Iphone 7 has small better performance
I can confirm
No changes in the CPU Performance
i dont have have a lowparamspeakpower but i do have a powersaveparams is this it?
Which device are you on?
I disabled it on iphone 7 plus. Same performance
I explained why it’s useless for iPhone 7 above.
Didn’t find (contextualClampParams)
iphone 7 plus iOS 11.1